Harlow's Nightclub was at the center of a perfect storm Monday. 

Headliner Orgone brought in a decent crowd of folks looking forward to a unique brand of SoCal soulpowerfunk. Local reggae act Zuhg opened the show, bringing a sizable and impassioned young fan base looking forward to high-energy NorCal Jazzreggaejamrock.

Many of those who came for Zuhg weren't all that familiar with Orgone.

Most of those who came to see Orgone weren't all that familiar with Zuhg.

The beauty of this scenario is that if one were to draw a Venn diagram representative of the people who would like each of these acts, it would be very close to a single circle.

What ended up happening was the crowd for both acts was about half newbies getting caught up in the groove, looking around excitedly as if to get confirmation that what they were seeing was, in fact, this dope, and half die-hards, singing along to their favorites, answering the newbies’ glances with knowing nods, giving confirmation: Oh yeah, they are this dope.

It made for easily the best Monday night crowd, and show, I've ever seen at Harlow's. Inspired booking by my man Brian McKenna.

Zuhg took the stage about 8:45, opening with "Up to no good." In it's first incarnation, Zuhg featured one sax player, two drummers, two guitarists and a bassist.

These six members would remain on stage for the entirety of the set, but they were far from alone.

For their second song, the horn-heavy, bouncy reggae cut "Nothing You Can Do," off their 2010 EP “Fish Tank,” they were joined on stage by two more sax players. They made good use of the horn section as they came to a cacophonous crescendo interlude (reminiscent of the interlude in the Beatles classic "A Day in the Life") before going back into NYCD.

For their next song, they were joined on stage by a fourth sax player, although he did not stay long, preferring to take his horn with him into the crowd. I think the song they were playing at the time was called "Personality." I know it was a crunchy-ass jam.

A few more highlights of the Zuhg set included a cover of Jimmy Hendrix's "Let me stand next to your fire," and a twisted version of the "Inspector Gadget" soundtrack for which the band brought out an MC to spit hot fire. (Inspector MadSpit?).

The band then played a couple more tracks off the “Fish Tank” EP, "Dreams" and "Sexual." For these, the last member of the band, Charlie, a long-haired beatboxer who has mastered the art of dubby womp wompitty womp womp beatboxing, joined the musicians already on the stage. 

He really got to stretch out his Wompboxing on their last song of the evening. I didn't catch the name of the song, but at one point, to the absolute delight of the audience, the exquisitely mustachioed fourth sax man went to his knees on the dance floor and leaned back till his shoulders were on the ground while belting out a mean solo.

The dude wearing a monkey and a sarong was especially stoked by the performance.

They left the stage to raucous applause a little after 9:30 p.m.

At 10 on the button, Orgone took the stage.

Orgone, which one of my buddies described, I think aptly, as "West-Coast Galactic" also had a three-man horn section, theirs featuring a trombone, trumpet and either a flute or a sax, depending on what the moment called for. 

A keyboard, bass, guitar and two drummers rounded out the group as it was composed for the first song of the evening, “A WOT,” an instrumental jam off of the 2008 album “Killion Floor” featuring an epic flute solo.

The eight-piece became nine on its second song of the evening, a rollicking "Do your thing," from the same album, that brought the already-amped crowd to new heights. Newly arrived vocalist Fanny Franklin Sy Smith implored the audience: "If you feel like you wanna scream, and screaming is your thing . . . then scream." 

The audience felt like screaming.

Fanny Smith dedicated the next song, "Nassau," from, you guessed it, “Killion Floor,” to Chris, "Cool Chris," the aforementioned saronged-and-monkeyed audience member.
The track offered several members of the band a chance to show off their chops as Fanny Smith sang: "Listen to the drummer, he's gonna play a funky beat. . . . Listen to the bass player, he's gonna make you move your feet."

“Nassau” ended with an epic solo by the stand-up percussionist just violating the bongo, snare, cowbell and . . . more cowbell.

Prescription filled.

They continued to mine their 2008 album with the bluesy "Who Knows Who," went elsewhere for "Ain't No Use," before returning for another instrumental jam, "Hambone."

Miss Franklin Smith returned for the ode to all things '70s, "Welcome Back." (J.J says Dyno-mite!).

Fanny Smith was a dancing, singing ode to the '70s personified with her giant red-tinged Afro, purple print shirt referencing said Afro, shiny gold skirt, purple fishnet stockings, pink belt and heels. 

"Make sure to head over to the mercy table after the show: You might get someone's number," she announced before the next song. "Like Sergio. Sergio is known to give it up." 

The next song? "Give it Up."

Orgone closed with another track off “Killion,” "I get lifted," ("Speaking of getting high") and a cover of the funkadelic classic, “Cosmic Slop.”

At 11:12 p.m., Orgone left the stage, only to return at 11:14 to raucous applause.

The musicians encored with "Do Your Thing" into "Honky," which turned into an extended instrumental jam featuring another epic flute solo. It's a rare (awesome) set that is bookended with searing flute solos, but then Orgone is a rare band.

It was a fantastic show featuring no less than 20 musicians between the two bands, and it was played in front of a packed and super-amped-up crowd. It was hard to believe it was a Monday night in Sacramento.