General admission tickets from $10-$35. See details below.
We’re kicking off our new season and welcoming students to campus with Southern sounds and style!
The Soul Rebels, revolutionizing and modernizing New Orleans brass, offer a joyful celebration of music, acceptance and togetherness. Creating a fusion of funk, soul, hip hop, jazz, and rock, The Soul Rebels’ seemingly always packed calendar will bring them to Chapel Hill for one amazing night.
Special guest Big Freedia, adding an extra bounce and soul to this engagement, joins The Soul Rebels for a night of New Orleans’ finest and most exciting artistic, cultural and genre-bending collaboration.
Riding high from their hit songs “Good Time” and “Pipe That,” the two artists have enjoyed their special collaboration on tour and on major festival stages, and with their music featured on television and in commercials.
Audiences can look forward to seeing The Soul Rebels and Big Freedia showcasing the very best of the “new” New Orleans style and sound.
“Brace yourselves folks, these men are quickly solidifying themselves amongst NOLA’s proud big brass elite… and seem intent to sublimate the homogenous tones of the contemporary urban music landscape with the lush instrumentation of our culture’s root.”
OKAYPLAYER
“…in solid New Orleans tradition, every Big Freedia show is a mobile oasis — pushing back the desert beat by beat.”
NPR
TICKETS
General admission tickets available for $35. $10 UNC-Chapel Hill student tickets available with valid UNC One Card. Additional discounts available. Visit our FAQ page for details.
EVENT DETAILS
- Runtime: 90 minutes
- Intermission: n/a
- Additional information: Visit our FAQ page
NEW! PRE-CONCERT EVENT
TWERKSHOP with BIG FREEDIA
Learn How to Shake with The Queen of Bounce
Friday, September 23 | 2:30-3 PM
Carolina Square Courtyard at CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio, 123 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill
Free and open to the public; no registration required
ABOUT THE SOUL REBELS
Eight men pick up shiny brass and drum instruments, lock into an unspoken groove and rotate genres like your favorite playlist shifting from funk, jazz and R&B to hip-hop, pop and beyond with fire, focus and fluidity. New Orleans-bred staple The Soul Rebels expand musical boundaries with an unwavering commitment to originality and innovation through genre-bending songs and performance collaborations with the likes of Katy Perry, Nas, Metallica, Big Freedia and G-Eazy.
MORE ABOUT THE SOUL REBELS
Brass sensation The Soul Rebels are riding high in 2022 after receiving national attention following the release of their new album, “Poetry In Motion.” The eight-member collective appeared on Sony Music artist G-Eazy featuring Lil Wayne’s new single “When You’re Gone,” Def Jam artist Dave East and Nas’ “Godfather 4” single, Big Freedia and Icona Pop’s “Pipe That,” and reached fans with original singles “Greatness,” featured as ESPN’s official College Hoops theme anthem, and “Good Time,” featured on Netflix’s “#BlackAF” and “Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!”
The Soul Rebels have impressed viewers with two recent appearances on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk series with Wu Tang Clan front man GZA, headlined the global TED Conference, and appeared on the official soundtrack for Universal Pictures’ hit comedy “Girls Trip.”
On the heels of their new supergroup with The Wu Tang Clan, The Soul Rebels continue to expand their international reach touring four continents including Europe, Australia, China, South Korea and Japan. Their explosive stage presence has led to live collaborations with the likes of DMX, Robin Thicke, Macy Gray, Portugal. The Man, Robert Glasper, Pretty Lights, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Matisyahu. The Soul Rebels started with an idea — to expand upon the pop music they loved on the radio and the New Orleans brass tradition they grew up on. They took that tradition and blended funk and soul with elements of hip hop, jazz, and rock all within a brass band context. The band has built a career around an eclectic live show that harnesses the power of horns and drums in a deep pocket funk party-like atmosphere. The Soul Rebels continue to chart new territory as they feature in major films, tour globally, and combine top notch musicianship with songs that celebrate dancing, life, funk and soul.
Band member bios at https://thesoulrebels.com/band/
ABOUT BIG FREEDIA
Known as the larger-than-life ambassador of New Orleans Bounce music, Big Freedia is a nationally recognized hip-hop artist, TV personality and cultural influencer. In addition to releasing her own critically acclaimed EPs, “3rd Ward Bounce”(2018), “Louder” (2020), and “Big Diva Energy”(2021), Big Freedia covered “Judas” on Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way the Tenth Anniversary” album (2021). The Queen of Bounce also appeared on numerous high-profile projects, including Beyoncé’s Grammy Award-winning, “Formation,” and on Drake’s “Nice For What,” where she brings her distinctive voice and signature catch phrases to all her work.
MORE ABOUT BIG FREEDIA
Big Freedia is known for her infectious energy and personality. In 2019, she was the official host for the Met Gala IG Live Stream Red Carpet event and a host of 2021’s “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” TV celebration. Known by her fans as the “Queen Diva,” Big Freedia is a loud and proud advocate for racial and gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights.
In 2021, Big Freedia was honored as one of Ebony’s Power 100 and she has appeared on NPR, “The Breakfast Club,” “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Real.” Big Freedia’s ascension in the music industry was chronicled over six seasons in the highly rated reality show, “Big Freedia Bounces Back” from 2011-2016 on Fuse TV. Her critically acclaimed 2015 memoir, “God Save the Queen Diva” (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster) was released in paperback in 2020.
“It doesn’t matter who you are — a hip teenager, somebody’s parent, an out-of-shape 34-year-old music writer who sweats when he takes the stairs — when Freedia comes to town, you will dance. And by god, you will like it.”
RIVERFRONT TIMES
