Last night at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village was a refreshingly feel-good, mostly funk affair. First on the neon-lit stage was Nashville/New York quartet Anna Haas + The Effect whose loud, rollicking tracks fondly recalled such iconic bands as The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac but burst to their own life with frontwoman Haas. With her rock-strong voice and fluid dance moves, she wasn’t so much the head of a band as much as the bearer of a flickering rock torch. New York five-piece Animal Reporters were next, performing similarly funk-influenced songs of jumping keys and virtuosic guitars that, at one point, surprisingly yet thrillingly dipped into psych-rock. The group’s funked-up cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” a song that is perhaps reinterpreted too much, also proved intriguing. A somewhat more ominous funk hit the room next with Brooklyn quintet Ferrari Truck. Beginning with a slow, stormy song that reminded one of The Doors’ darker cuts, the Flatbush-rooted group then went into a warm, blues-inflected track that sounded like something The Dude would zone out to. As heard in their guitar-fuzzed, poignantly-titled track “Whispering You,” though, the band seemed keen to move as well as thrill the listener. Fellow Brooklyn five-piece Cousin Earth (pictured) took the stage next, beginning their set with an unabashedly glorious rendition of Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," lead singer Terry Brennan using a mini mouthpiece to simulate that track’s perky instrumentation. Then, after playing one of the loopy, effects-oriented songs from their forthcoming new album (due 11.20), the band segued into an amusing yet rocking medley of what seemed to be Kermit the Frog and a reggae-tinged version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” displaying this group’s fun-loving nature. Over at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1, New York quartet The Amigos ended the night with its bluegrass-inflected, accordion-based tracks that blasted the longing of the blues in a pleasantly sunny way. – Zach Weg
