Brave Combo

“...nearly every Brave Combo show is a celebration in itself. Even if you come for the party, you’ll leave with something of a musical education. The group throws all manner of world dance music into the mix, including polka, ska, meringue, hora, conjunto and zydeco.” -Daniel Durcholz - Riverfront Times

At last, a band that rocks the brain as well as the feet.”- Jeff Spevak - Democrat & Chronicle

“Founded in Denton, Texas, Finch’s hometown, Brave Combo is best known as the band that takes any and all types of material -- psychedelic rock, ethnic folk songs, anthems both religious and national, hackneyed standards, and so forth -- and turns it into tightly played, infectious dance music. “
- Pasatiempo! Santa Fe New Mexican

Taking the term “world beat” to a stellar level, they respectfully mash up dance rhythms from beyond Poland: Mexico, Africa, Argentina, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Frankie Yankovic’s secret timeshare in the Vienna Woods, the Wurstfests of Middle America, Ricky Ricardo’s Tropicana nightclub, inner-city Detroit, the Lower East Side, and that weird and wonderful land called Hollywood. If you’ve only heard the theme from “Rosemary’s Baby” with Mia Farrow la-la-ing through it, you have no idea what a beautiful waltz it is until you hear Brave Combo’s gentle cabaret treatment of it. - Texas Rising Star - Kelly Clarke

“Describing Brave Combo to the uninitiated is like trying to explain cheese to someone who's never tasted it: You know they're gonna love it, if you could just convince 'em to try it. ….. Any human with a pulse will love this band. Yet it's hard to explain their music honestly without mentioning the P-word. Despite the fact that they rock to a rainbow of rhythms--bolero, bossa nova, bubblegum, cha cha, charanga, conjunto, cumbia, dirge, foxtrot, guaguanco, hora, huapango, mambo, merengue, Muzak, oberek, ondo, ranchera, rhumba, rock, salsa, samba, schottische, ska, stroll, tango, twist, two-step, waltz, and zydeco--they've always described themselves as a "nuclear polka" band. “ - Illinois Times - Dust Rhodes

Local Grammy-winning polka fusion band Brave Combo turned the Dallas Museum of Arts' Atrium Cafe into an absolute, raucous dance party.

So many people packed the cafe and dance floor that security guards began forming a human barricade to monitor the traffic flow.

I ascended the cafe's staircase to watch the excitement from a higher vantage point. Tons of other people had gathered in the tight second-floor space, too, shaking their tail feathers to Brave Combo's popular "Chicken Dance." When the band launched into "Rock Around the Clock," the scene below exploded into an excited sea of jitterbug swing. - Dallas Morning News

Brave Combo brings unique sound to Fort Worth’s Botanic Garden


By DARREN WHITE
Special to the Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH — Rock 'n’ roll and polka: They don’t seem like the easiest forms of music to mix, but Denton’s Brave Combo has been doing an excellent job of just that for nearly 30 years. The quintet, led by multi-instrumentalist Carl Finch, brought its quirky take on traditional dance music to Concerts in the Garden on Sunday.

The music: A witty meld of Tex-Mex, polka, salsa and jazz combined with elements of alternative rock and new wave. In less capable hands, heaping so many styles together might sound awful, but Finch’s crack set of musicians seems to have a master’s understanding of each genre.

Throughout the set, the band incorporated familiar tunes and melodies into its own nontraditional polkas, sambas and salsas. Louie, Louie flowed seamlessly into a hypnotic take on George Gershwin’s Summertime then back to Louie, Louie. It helps to appreciate polka, but one thing’s for certain, this is a band that truly comes alive on stage. No disc they’ve released, including last year’s Grammy-nominated Polka’s Revenge, can match seeing the band rip into a polka-influenced version of In the Mood.

The mood: In a word, jubilant. Finch and the rest of the Combo had the sparse crowd on its feet for almost the entire show. It was only fitting. The band played one up-tempo tune after another, and Finch yelled dance instructions from the stage, so the only thing to do was dance.

Memorable moment: There’s always a handful of dancing couples at Concerts in the Garden, regardless of the act, but Brave Combo led a majority of the crowd first in a conga line, then the Twist and finally the goofy, but oh so fun, chicken dance. As memorable moments go, that’s pretty much the trifecta, but the band also provided a very sweet counterpoint to the silliness as couples swayed to Joy Waltz, based on Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. - Star Telegram

"The Grand Pooh-Bah of Denton bands, Brave Combo, is in many ways the template from which all the rest are cut: eclectic and artistically ambitious, with a high degree of musicianship and a strong DIY ethic." - Paste Magazine