We hired Sidepocket to play at our Oakland wedding and it was-- hands down-- the best decision we made. Exceptionally professional, extraordinarily talented. If you have an upcoming event and want live music, you would be truly foolish not to hire them.
They are talented as a group, and talented individually. We ended up hiring them to play during the entire event-- their guitarist played during our ceremony, a guitar and sax duo played during our dinner, and the full band played during the after-dinner reception. At each stage, they were flawless.
Before the wedding, Pamela (the lead singer) was extremely communicative and helpful. In addition to being an extraordinary musician and singer, she's also a wedding planner and an MC rolled into one-- she helped us create a comprehensive timeline for the entire event, and think through a lot of things that we hadn't considered or planned for. She was like a wedding spirit guide.
Pamela also MC'd the entire reception--- speeches, table turnover, dessert, entrances, exits, everything. She was gracious, flexible, extremely professional, and made sure that we had all the mics that we needed.
During the dance sets, the full band sounded AMAZING. EVERYONE had fun, and EVERYONE loved them. They are just unstoppably talented, and fantastic at reading the energy of the crowd. We had a mix of Spanish and English-speakers, old and young, and they had EVERYONE dancing. In addition, though they have an extensive song list, they also actually learned a new song -- IN SPANISH--- that we wanted played for our first dance, and they crushed it.
My parents remarked that they hadn't danced like that in 15 years. My husband's father, who is usually quite shy and retiring, got ON THE MICROPHONE to sing and tore it up the whole night. What greater gift can you ask for?
We feel very blessed to have had them at our wedding.
I should note that I wasn't compensated in any way for writing this review-- they didn't even ask me to write one. read more