Chris Fischer, leader of Boulder-based band Funkiphino, swore he'd never wear a tuxedo to a gig.

He's changed his mind now that his band got an invitation to play at the 55th presidential inauguration gala on Thursday night.

"Of course the first thing they asked is, 'You've got tuxedos, right?' " said Fischer, 31.
Although humbled, the 10-member funk band is far from intimidated. Greeley's Brett Schmahl plays trumpet and said the Independence Ball's 55,000-plus crowd can expect to be engaged by the band's performance.

"We make it a matter of personal responsibility to look out into the crowd and connect," said Schmahl, a 1992 Greeley Central High School graduate. "We want to entertain and to make people happy. That is our job."

After leaving Central, where Schmahl said he got a great introduction to music from band teachers Jeff Davis and Greg Carroll, Schmahl went on to UNC, and credited trumpet professor Bill Pfund with furthering his interest in the trumpet. Schmahl got his bachelor's degree from UNC in 1998 and a master's in '03. Now he teaches music privately in Greeley and plays with Funkiphino, and is joined on the band by another UNC grad, Eric Stehle, a saxophonist.

Six years of playing an eclectic mix of funk, jazz, soul and disco, Funkiphino may be the only horn band to impress the governor. Gov. Bill Owens was singing the band's praises after they played last year's Governor's Cup.

Lead singer Cathy Griffin, 39, said the band's goal is to get everybody at the ball dancing.

While picturing the president boogying to the band's soulful rendition of Earth, Wind and Fire may sound silly, the band members take their job as horn-blowing roof-raisers seriously.

Rumor around Boulder is there will be protesters making their way to the inauguration the day Funkiphino is to play, said Fischer. Fischer said the band's Boulder roots makes them an ironic choice for the inauguration, but he knows there's no room for politics when it comes to representing funk music.

Playing a stodgy ball in rented tuxes may not be the band's normal style, but this is a minor concern to their main objective.

"We're going there to blow people away," Fischer said.

BENEFIT FOR TROOPS

Funkiphino recently set up a charity drive for U.S. soldiers with $5 of every Funkiphino CD sold at shows going to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The band's contribution goes hand in hand with this year's inaugural theme, "Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service."