Best of Cleveland 2015: Funk Cover Band

To Jon Work, you don't simply listen to funk — your entire body reacts. "It's a groove in the music that is so nasty you have to make that scowl," says Work, the co-founder and bassist of Akron funk cover band Get On Up. "It gets in your nose." That's why the group's name is a literal command to its audience members taken from James Brown's shake-your-moneymaker anthem "Sex Machine." Get On Up views its shows as a dance party — setting the mood with more chill classics from Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, and then unleashing the slap-you-in-the-face hits of Chaka Khan and Bruno Mars. Work has seen the groove take hold of even the unlikeliest of crowds, especially a gaggle of seniors at a recent gig. "One guy fell down because he was dancing so hard," Work says. "He needed help getting up twice."getonupfunk.com