“Y’all ready to get hot?” emcee Micael Priest asks the crowd. It is the late 1970s in Austin and young funk group Extreme Heat is about to grace Armadillo World Headquarters – the club in town where greats like Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Bruce Springsteen pulled up.
Slick guitars converse with stream-of-consciousness piano solos as splashy drums and bumpy bass lines demand dancing. It was this sound that sparked the band’s explosive launch in 1974 as Steam Heat (they changed to Extreme Heat in 1977). Still burning 50 years later, the multiple Austin Music Award-winners now gear up for their anniversary show November 9 at the Saxon Pub with a vinyl release of their greatest hits. “We’re just too dumb to quit,” said Bruce Spelman, the band’s singer and founding member.
Since their inception, the troupe has released more than a dozen albums, toured nationally, opened for the likes of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, and grooved in lockstep with Austin’s music history. They played the first SXSW in 1987, mixed with late local keyboard icon James Polk, and cut their craft at iconic venues like Saxon Pub, Soap Creek Saloon, and Liberty Lunch. In recent years, the still-spry tribe has kept steady gigs, churned out new material, and even auditioned at Atlantic Records.
It all started with James Brown. “I played in rock bands and then in the early 70s somebody played me James Brown records,” said Mike Barnes, the Heat’s guitarist since day one. “That was it.”
Soon Barnes, Spelman, and a few others got together with ears tuned for a raw mashup of jazz, soul, and R&B. “The coolest band on the planet was Sly and the Family Stone,” said Spelman. “We were trying to be like that.”
While funk groups were gaining steam nationally, few played in Austin – a land ruled by rock, country, and cosmic cowboys in those days. “We were a real alternative to what was going on,” Spelman said.
Serving up novel material in a new territory was one reason for Extreme Heat’s immediate success. The other was Phil Ritcherson. “When he joined the band, that was the spark that we needed to get it going,” said Spelman.
Through Ritcherson’s oversized personality and established popularity in the University of Texas Longhorn Band, the trombonist and vocalist pulled big crowds for the Heat. He spent his days walking around campus, inviting students to the band’s local shows. The liberal-era drinking age of 18 helped catch a wider fan base, too.
By winter of 1974, the funk crew had packed weekday concerts, attracted a manager, and secured a gig at Armadillo World Headquarters. In the coming months, they recorded their debut, which opened the gate to national tours.
As more musicians joined and new songs emerged, the original members found themselves with a different band – one that needed a different name. Dumping their old title, Steam Heat, they searched for a temporary placeholder. “We jokingly said, ‘Well, it’s an evolutionary process. Now we’re Extreme Heat’” Spelman remembered. The joke stuck – partly because the temperature-related phrase pervades Austin weather every summer. “We get the best publicity you could possibly get,” Spelman said.
Since those early days, Extreme Heat has continued to evolve, playing hundreds of shows a year in its prime to occasional events in the early 2000s as members pursued personal ambitions. While some moved on, others, like Spelman, were in it for the long haul. “I’m happy that I stuck with this,” Spelman said. “It means something.”
Spelman will be one of three remaining founding members at the anniversary show (the other two include Barnes and keyboardist Neil Pederson). Ritcherson, who would have joined as the fourth, died in March of this year. In tribute, the album cover reflects his smile and signature green star glasses across the front of a steam engine. “This album is dedicated to Phil Ritcherson,” the back cover reads, “the train that put us on the right track for 50 years.”
The Extreme Heat anniversary show takes place Saturday, November 9, Saxon Pub at 6pm. It will be followed by an afterparty at TexPop ATX with live music, merch, and a chance to meet members of the band.
This article appears in November 1 • 2024.