After Hurricane Katrina, two rock-solid New Orleans drummers — Stanton Moore of Galactic and the famously versatile Kevin O’Day — ended up as roommates and asked themselves why they didn’t have a group together. They started calling up friends and assembled an all-star lineup: Matt Perrine, Ben Ellman (Galactic), Skerik, Mark Mullins (Bonerama), Big Sam Williams, Trombone Shorty, and Shamarr Allen.
The Disturbers debuted at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and became Fest regulars, playing the rest of the year whenever schedules allowed, with a rotating cast of all-stars. Their signature look is a set of black T-shirts printed in red type, each reading “Listen to…” followed by the name of a New Orleans mentor or forebear — James Black, Brian O’Neill, Smokey Johnson — on whose shoulders the players stand.
The band and the city’s music scene suffered a heavy loss in the spring of 2022, when O’Day died unexpectedly; the shirts changed to read “Listen to… Kevin O’Day.” The Disturbers regrouped and continue to blaze through sets at Jazz Fest and the occasional local venue. Their exact debut year has not been confirmed in published sources; the band was a fixture of Jazz Fest lineups from the late 2000s onward.
