It all started with a phone call.
Shortly after Adam Gold's restaurant -- Syracuse's Funk-N-Waffles, a casual joint that offers exactly what it promises in both music and eats -- was featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, he got a call from the show's host, Guy Fieri.
Fieri was driving down the highway, listening to the album he'd been given just an hour earlier by Gold. It was a record by Gold's band, Sophistafunk, a trio from Syracuse that plays a blend of classic funk and hip-hop. One of the band's songs is about sending someone off into the afterlife on a dragonfly. Coincidentally, Dragonfly was the nickname Fieri had for his sister, who'd recently passed away from cancer. It was an emotional moment.
"He said, 'You guys are blowing my mind. I love this music,' " Gold recalls.
Then Guy Fieri dropped the bomb.
"He said, 'I'd love to have you perform at my birthday party.' "
And so, this past January, Sophistafunk went to California and played Guy Fieri's birthday party. The Village Voice caught up with Gold to chat about his experience working with Fieri, that New York Times review of Guy's American Kitchen and Bar, and, yep, the dude's hair.
Catch Sophistafunk tonight at Stage 48 at 8 p.m. Support their fundraiser to convert their van to run on vegetable oil here.
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