Pioneering NYC funk outfit ESG returns to San Francisco's Great American Music Hall
Influential New York City funk group ESG makes a welcome return to San Francisco Friday night, performing with openers Mild Universe and DJ Paul Costuros at the Great American Music Hall.
ESG first started making their unique style of kinetic funk over four decades ago when the South Bronx-raised Scroggins sisters -- singer Renee, drummer Valerie, bassist Deborah and percussionist/vocalist Marie -- founded the band in 1978. The band's name was an acronym for Emerald, Sapphire (Valerie and Renee's birthstones), and Gold, which referred to the record sale certification.
Building a local audience by playing clubs across New York City, ESG would meet their unofficial manager and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman when the band played a talent show that he was judging. The group rose to international fame when UK label head Tony Wilson saw them perform in Manhattan and offered to record their music in London.
Working with producer Martin Hannett (Joy Division, New Order and many others), ESG recorded their spare intense funk tracks "Moody" and "UFO" that would influence legions of musicians ranging from hip-hop artists who heavily sampled songs from the band's 1981 EP to post-punk and new-wave acts drawn to the group's edgy, propulsive dance sound including their NYC contemporaries Liquid Liquid and A Certain Ratio, a British band on Wilson's Factory Records.
Released on Factory in partnership with 99 Records, the EP became a staple of Manhattan clubs and quickly caught the attention of burgeoning hip-hop producers, NYC punks and the music press. The EP would be celebrated by critic Robert Palmer and end up on year-ending "Best of" lists for the New York Times and the Villiage Voice.
The band would make more recordings in a similar vein with the follow-up EP ESG Says Dance to the Beat of Moody in 1982 and its proper debut album Come Away with ESG the next year, which incorporated songs from the first two EPs while delving deeper into electronic, no wave and dub territory.
ESG would perform into the next decade and beyond, but the band gain far more notoriety from the rampant sampling of their music, with "UFO" becoming a foundational building block for many late '80s and '90s hip hop hits (a fact they noted with the title of their 1992 EP Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills). The band remained active, issuing a live album in 1995 that featured ESG's trademark terse funk classics and new material.
In the decades since, the band's legend has only grown. Their original vinyl releases have become coveted (and expensive) collectors items, with their back catalog getting a proper reissue that has earned ESG a new generation of fans. Notable artist ranging the Beastie Boys, the Dirtbombs and Interpol to a host of late '90s and early 2000s dance-punk bands all cite the pioneering group as an influence.
Still fronted by Renee Scroggins and now featuring second generation members of the Scoggins family, ESG has remained a popular touring act, playing festivals in Europe and the U.S. (including Huichica in Napa last year) to deliver their feel-good, dance-party favorites to audiences across the globe. While ESG billed its January 2023 West Coast tour as the last time the band would tour before the elder Scoggins retired, the band returned to the Bay Area for a spirited set at the Mosswood Meltdown in 2023 and played another special show at the Great American Music Hall in January that included the San Francisco premiere of the new Renee Scoggins-directed film -- Are You Serious? The ESG Story.
Happily, the group is coming back to SF for another appearance at the Great American Friday, one of only two shows on the West Coast before heading to Stockholm for a concert next week. Opening San Francisco-based indie-dance collective Mild Universe that includes noted singer/songwriter Mayya Feygina on bass plays pulsing, atmospheric house-influenced songs from their brand new album Everything Must Change. DJ Paul Costuros aka DJ Paul Paul (Soul Party, Downtown 81, Ruby Tuesday) provides appropriate vinyl selections before and between bands.
ESG
Friday, Sept. 13, 7 p.m. $35-$39
Great American Music Hall