The Budos Band
Ace of Spades, Sacramento
August 24, 2025
Photos by Paul Piazza
The Budos Band recently played Sacramento’s Ace of Spades in support of their seventh record entitled Budos VII.
The band have been cooking up their ominous, instrumental Afro-doom wonder sounds since they first formed in 2005 in Staten Island, New York. They are going strong into their 20th year and this tour proved it.
The Budos Band were signed early on in their career to the prestigious retro-soul and funk label Daptone in Brooklyn. Some of the members have partnered with other Daptone acts over time but they have been the most unique band on the label for the duration of their existence.
They have had an impact in the broader sense, having impacted the world at large with their music being utilized on the popular show The Bear. The Bear has used three of their songs. A pair of their signature numbers, “Up from the South” and “T.I.B.W.F.,” have been represented on everything from sports broadcasts to tequila commercials. They definitely set a mood.
As composers, the Budos band are prolific. As live performers, they have no peers.
In Sacramento, the band came out smoking hot and never let up. Opening with “Thrice Crowne,” the opening cut on the new record, the band established the heavy groove ambiance with the tune’s percolating percussion, foreboding rhythm groove and thematic horn lines.
Since their inception, the group have had a unique finesse with composing these mysterious and mesmerizing themes that guide the listener on an interstellar voyage. It also keeps the crowd moving in place.
Fronted by two trumpets and a saxophone, the band also has two percussionists as well as keys, drums, guitar, and bass.
Bassist Daniel Foder prowled the stage constantly, slanging his bass upside down and sideways, wielding it all over the place persistently in perpetual motion. Trumpeters David Guy and Andrew Greene played strong, articulate rhythms and instigated much of the psychedelic soundscapes. Meanwhile, baritone saxophonist Jared Tankel provided the low end and counter rhythms with incredible proficiency.
Drummer Brian Profilio, who comes up with the band’s mysterious song titles, is a workhorse, who propels the band as a pair of percussionists flanking him to the left, who were both incredible.
The band’s guitarist, Thomas Brenneck, served as the late, great Charles Bradley’s producer as well being the guitarist in his band. He is a succinct player, who has a “less is more” approach and creates horn-like sounds in his playing. Organist Mike Deller was also a member of Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires. With the Budos, he adds another element of doom with accents and a flair for turning the song direction into another dimension.
Opening the show at Ace was Levitation Room. The East Los Angeles band have a colorful, unearthly sound that has earned them distinction in the modern psychedelic music world.
