Big Sam's Funky Nation

Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street, voodoo, Po' boys, beads, gumbo, and second line are certainly the first flambeaux-lit New Orleans traditions that come to mind. Those NOLA jewels include Big Sam's Funky Nation as well. Big Sam's Funky Nation, which is renowned for its raucous fusion of funk, jazz, rock, and hip-hop as well as for its seismic live "experiences" and abundance of Southern charm, may be The Big Easy's best-kept secret. No other location could have given birth to such an unmistakable, unpredictable, and utterly singular group. You can spend as much time as you like at a music school, but it won’t teach you how to command a stage. In New Orleans, it just happens. Sam has lived here all his life, and he’s been rocking these streets the whole time. He traveled nine hours from San Antonio every weekend for two years only to play live music, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Nothing else in the world sounds like the sound out here. It's not simply a metaphor either—literally, music plays all night.