Hazard To Ya Booty brings its Missouri funk back to St. Louis for the first time since 2016

The Truman State-born funk band hasn't played the city since a June 2016 night at The Demo; it returns to Old Rock House on Friday, Jan. 15, with The Grooveliner opening.

The last time Hazard To Ya Booty played St. Louis, it was a summer night at The Demo on June 30, 2016. More than ten years later, the Missouri funk band finally has a St. Louis date on the books again, and it's a good one for a dead-of-winter Friday: Old Rock House, Friday, Jan. 15, 2027, at 8 p.m., with The Grooveliner opening.

The show was announced Oct. 14, and tickets are $14.76 through eTix. At that price, in a 500-capacity room, it's about as cheap a night of live horns and dance-floor bass as you'll find this winter.

For anyone who came up after 2016, a quick primer. Hazard To Ya Booty is a homegrown Missouri band, not a touring act passing through. The group started in 2000 at Truman State University in Kirksville, and its lineup has turned over through the years, according to a program note from the World Chess Hall of Fame's music series. That same note describes a sound that pulls rock, soul, hip-hop, jazz and blues into funk, and says the band has opened for Common, Jurassic 5 and the Nappy Roots.

That hip-hop streak matters. This isn't a jam band that occasionally plays a James Brown cover. A band that has shared bills with Common and Jurassic 5 knows how to lock into a groove and keep it there, and that is the kind of set that suits a standing room on a Friday.

A ten-year gap is long enough that a lot of the people in the room on Jan. 15 will be hearing this band for the first time.

The room helps too. Old Rock House sits at 1200 S. 7th St., downtown between Soulard and Busch Stadium, and it moves between concert hall and listening room depending on the night. Its name comes from a historic riverfront building that was taken down in 1959 to make way for the Gateway Arch, as the Gateway Arch Park Foundation recounts. For a band built on Missouri roots, it's a fitting place to come back to.

What has changed in ten years is mostly the city around the band. The Demo, where Hazard To Ya Booty last played here, was a small room. Old Rock House is a step up, and a sign that the promoters expect a crowd, whether that's old Truman State friends who drove down for the night or Soulard regulars who just want to dance.

The Grooveliner opens, which suggests the night is being built as a full funk bill rather than a headliner and a stray opener.

A few practical notes: the show starts at 8 p.m. on a Friday, so downtown parking around the ballpark district is your friend in January, since there's no baseball traffic to fight. Get tickets early; at under $15, a show like this can sell through quietly before the week of.

Ten years is a long time between visits. Bring a coat you don't mind checking, and plan on sweating through your shirt anyway.

Sources: Monthly Music Series: Hazard to Ya Booty — World Chess Hall of Fame (worldchesshof.org); Old Rock House — Information (oldrockhouse.com); Resurrecting History in St. Louis — Gateway Arch Park Foundation (archpark.org); eTix — BootyGroove ft. Hazard To Ya Booty, The Grooveliner at Old Rock House (etix.prf.hn); JamBase — Hazard To Ya Booty at Old Rock House (jambase.com)