Call them Joan of park!
A band based in Prospect Park will move inside for a free-spirited bash of music, silly costumes, and pastries at the bar Friends and Lovers on Nov. 5. The lead singer of Joan says that the band’s “Soul Parade” party will celebrate unity through the power of music, and hopes that everyone will feel the love.
“It’s celebrating that across people and genres there is something that everyone has within them and is able to connect to,” said Nick Farago, who will open the event with his fellow band member Hank Mittnacht.
The Soul Parade party will feature a smorgasborg of diverse musical performances, all recruited serendipitously. The band, which often practices and performs in Prospect Park, met soul and reggae performer Blue Dahlia while she was busking on the subway, and the musicians connected with spoken word artist Supe the Dude through a chance encounter on the street. The guys of Joan wrangled their genre-spanning friends into a show to celebrate what they all have in common — a vaguely-defined feeling they call “soul.”
“We have always felt it was the soul that connected the music together, even though song-to-song it was wildly different,” said Farago. “There is something connecting them and that would be soul — the soul in music and the soul in human beings.”
Farago and Mittnacht dreamed up the Soul Parade while creating the music of Joan — they realized their music had no defining genre, but that there was a soulful undercurrent through everything they did. The goal of Soul Parade, said Farago, is to celebrate that current and share it with new people.
“We wanted to make that manifest in a night because we felt it was something unique,” he said.
The event will also feature a rack of costumes, so soul paraders can dress up in silly and inspiring regalia while they get in the spirit, along with baked goods from a local baker and friend of the band. These additions are deliberately random, said the band’s manager — the band wants people to relax and express themselves freely, rather than promote any agenda.
“It’s kind of an informal event, but that’s okay because the feeling is good,” said Nanda Golden.
“Soul Parade” at Friends and Lovers [641 Classon Ave. between Pacific and Dean streets in Crown Heights, (917) 979–3060, www.fnlbk.com]. Nov. 5 at 9 pm. Free.
