At around 3 hours long, the Sunday night finale of HONK! 2010 is unquestionably worth the $10 entry + $1 processing fee – especially once you know that the Somerville Theater “donated” the stage for the night and all the proceeds will be collected by HONK!’s fiscal sponsor, a non-profit entity, and go right back into the production of this most-wonderful event!

19 bands, a trombone choir and a 10-minute tutti all-band jam blowout at the end – SO much energy, it was impossible to not stand and dance the entire time (actually the house didn’t catch on until the 2nd or 3rd band that “this isn’t opera” and you’re meant to shake your rump!). The videos below are approximate 1-minute samples of each band.

What Cheer? really blew it out of the water first, and then later on another Providence-based band, Extraordinary Rendition, blew it out again with a brassy version of Smooth Criminal – you might think Providence had bagged the event until the 40+ members of NYC’s Rude Mechanical Orchestra really showed the HONK! fans what’s what with their participatory – both singing and dancing – numbers. WOW!

Photos from the same night, and photos from the festival proper on Saturday and the street parade on Sunday can be found in various sets on my Flickr

Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band

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Bread & Puppet Circus Band

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Detroit Party Marching Band

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Veveritse

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Seed & Feed

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Leftist Marching Band

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What Cheer? Brigade

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Springville All-Star Marching Band

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Himalayas

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tint(A)nar

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Black Bear Combo

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Dirty Water Brass Band

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Trombone Choir

NO VIDEO – but trust me it was AWESOME! around 25 trombones plus small trumpet and tuba sections with a minor drum line – WOWEE!

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Emperor Norton

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Extraordinary Rendition Band

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Rude Mechanical Orchestra

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…unfortunately at this point my camera battery started to die to the point where it was retracting the lens within a couple seconds. I managed to snap some band pictures, but I don’t have videos for the following bands (sorry!):

Environmental Encroachment

DJA-Rara

Minor Mishap

Brass Liberation Orchestra

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and of course at the very end there was the all-band blowout tutti jam – probably 100 people on stage:

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