SLUGGER

ome rooms just bring out the best in a band — and for SLUGGER, the Maple Leaf is home. New Orleans' most electrifying funk-soul collective returns to the stage where they recorded their celebrated live album Uncut Buzz, and they're bringing the heat.

Built around the pocket of drummer Terrence Houston — a man whose unsurpassed feel for New Orleans grooves has taken him around the world and onto stages with George Porter Jr. & the Runnin' Pardners, the Funky Meters, Toubab Krewe, and Khris Royal's Dark Matter — SLUGGER is a convergence of some of the city's finest: bassist Noah Young of post-jazz powerhouse Naughty Professor, guitarist Max Bronstein laying down razor-sharp grooves, and the soulful keys and vocals of Joe Johnson anchoring it all with fire and feeling.

Houston came up steeped in New Orleans funk, R&B, and the groove traditions that make this city's drumming unlike anything…