Best Live Band 18.2% Freak Brothers* 14.97% Go Dog Go* 11.9% Hillbilly Casino* 11.05% homeless J*, Hoochie Mama Get-Down 3.4% Sirface, Tri State Killing Spree 3.23% Nostalgia 1.87% Definitely Gary 1.53% Matt Sturm Band 1.19% Blue Moon Boys, Brother, John Curran & Renegade 1.02% CookiePuss 0.85% Brown Bottle Band 0.68% Savannah, Second Sun, Third Frame, Wailhounds Others with Votes (more than one): The Agency, Borrowed Time Band, Downbreed, Leeko, Migraines, Shunned, Walkiní Papers, City Lights, Coda, Lollygaggers, Loose Change, Mooncrickets, Rupert Bomb, Sfumato, Vandolah 2002 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 2001 Winner: Strut Train 2000 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 1999 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 1998 Winner: Blue Moon Boys 1997 Winner: Blue Moon Boys * On the ballot

They look like the front line of a football team. But they sound like the first line of a rolling street party. With an onslaught of brass and wind instruments, a funky rhythm section and mixture of singing and rapping, they command a stage like a Hummer in a parking lot. But unlike those nonsensical beasts that are more parody than useful, this powerhouse actually has a purpose. They're the Freak Brothers, and they took the Whammys by storm winning Performer of the Year, Best Funk Band, Best Live Band and Best Cover Band. The Freak Brothers arrived at Columbia Street West in a couple of white stretch limos. Before the evening ended one of the limos and the Performer of the Year Whammy fell apart. The Freak Brothers are hoping the same thing doesn't happen to them. Though together as the Freak Brothers for a mere three years, this band of brothers have played music together in one form or another for nearly a decade. And it shows. Formed from members of Always in the Fridge and Strut Train, two popular bands in their own right, the Freak Brothers' genesis really began in high school in the mid-1990s. "We all just grew up together," says bass player Adam Martin. "A lot of us went to North Side together. Dan (Mihuc) and Dana (Dancer) grew up together." Martin, Matt Cashdollar, Brandon Rentfrow, Adam Rudolph, and Dan Cappelli were in Always in the Fridge, and Cashdollar and Brian Osborne were with Strut Train. The familial nature the Freak Brothers possess allows the music to move seamlessly from song to song and surrounds the band in an atmosphere of fun. "We just play things we grew up listening to," Martin says. "Jazz, funk, Motown. Everybody in the band is heavily into jazz." The jazz element gives the Freak Brothers a freewheeling sound with lots of room for improvisation and exploration. Songs blend together, dip and turn, and come out as something new. Martin says they're students of the swamp-jazz-jam school of New Orleans-based bands such as Galactic