Fort Wayne based funk and dance band The Freak Brothers formed three years ago after members of the now defunct Always in the Fridge decided to regroup and start gigging again.

The new band would be a departure from the Always in the Fridge style. The Freak Brothers decided to put away their jazz chops and hone in on a mix of funk and dance. "We take a lot of popular covers from the 60s through the 90s and play them in an original style to make people move," said Brothers bassist Adam Martin.

The Brothers play a range of songs from artists like James Brown, the Ohio Players, Sly and the Family Stone, Prince and the Sugar Hill Gang, he said. They even play a few rap cuts.

Martin notes the band's version of Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog's "NuthinĒ But a G Thang."

He said Freak Brothers member Matt Cashdollar (formerly of Strut Train) usually comes alive on the Dr. Dre song and others by the Sugar Hill Gang.

"He does a pretty good job," Martin said. But the "meat" of the band's set is its funk and dance tunes, Martin said. The spin they put on each song is never quite the same from show to show, he added.

"We listen to a tune, get the basic form down and learn nothing else about it," he said. "You'll hear the original flavor of it, but we play it how we hear it. It's different every show."

The band's penchant for changing things around and never playing one single song - or for that matter even a whole set - the same from show to show is what keeps fans coming back, Martin said.

It also keeps bar owners happy.

Something else that makes club owners happy, Martin said, is the band's reluctance to stop between a song and talk as some bands are prone to do.

"Throughout our whole show there are no real stops," he said. "The songs are one continuous medley."

Martin said the non-stop style is "effective in keeping people in the club." Talking between songs, he added, "is cheesy. What's the use? I don't really have anything to say."

The style also keeps things interesting for the Freak Brothers members. "It's challenging to us to have to make it go right into the next song," Martin said. "It's like a game for us."

Currently, the Brothers have one recording of a live show at Columbia Street West. The recording, mixed by sound man Steve Wright, features 70 minutes worth of Freak Brothers songs. The band hands out copies of the live album free to fans at its shows.

They also use one song from the live recording on their promotion pack, Martin said. That pack includes a DVD with footage of the band performing.

Aside from the live recording, which Martin refers to as a bootleg, the band is currently working on its debut album. The as-yet-untitled debut will feature an undisclosed amount of Freak Brothers original tunes, Martin said, and might be finished and released sometime next year.

The release of the original album may increase the band's stature locally. Martin said the Freak Brothers are relatively unknown in the Fort Wayne area. Outside of town, however, the band's popularity is growing. He cites locales like Indianapolis and Flint, Michigan, which have embraced the Brothers.

Martin doesn't know quite why the band hasn't taken a hold on the Fort Wayne crowd like it has in other cities.

"The least amount of people know us here," he said. "I haven't been able to pinpoint it. Maybe it's more press or the fact that college towns pick up on new music faster."

Whatever the reason, band members aren't disconcerted. They shouldn't be. They've accumulated a growing following that, as Martin noted, is "pretty diverse.

"We have fans who are anywhere from 21 to 55 years-old," he added. "A lot of people come with their parents to see us. We have a lot of mother-daughter fan combinations."

Martin said he thinks the band's music is the key to bridging the generation gap.

"Our music is something a lot of people can identify with," he said. "We play the songs that the songs of today come from."

The band gets its name from the way the group acts when they are together at shows or rehearsals, Martin said.

"It's about how we act," he added. "All of us grew up together. We've known each other for over 15 years. We're all really just brothers. When you get us all together that's how we act - like a bunch of crazy brothers."

The rest of the band includes Dan Mihuc, Adam Rudolph, Brandon Rentfrow, Bryan Osborne, and Dana Dancer.