I'm glad ESG exists. I listen to rock music exclusively and obsessively, but I like to pretend I am a well rounded music lover by attending the occasional non-rock show. My first in a while was the Bronx funk band Emerald, Sapphire and Gold, better known as ESG. I saw them Saturday night at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

ESG has a great story. This is a show review, but I like the story so much I want to tell it first. Four sisters from the South Bronx started a band in the late 1970s because their mother wanted to keep them out of trouble. Without lessons, they started to write songs and started playing shows in the city. Before the youngest sister was 18, they had already released their first record and opened for The Clash. Through the '80s and '90s they made great music, though the most exposure they ever got was as the band sampled by hundreds of hip-hop artists (both illegally and legally) including the Beastie Boys, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy and LL Cool J. They were more than a little upset about this;  in 1992 they released the EP "Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills." They've quit playing twice and gotten back together, most recently in September 2008.

Here's the show review now. (Le) Poisson Rouge is wall to wall dancing before ESG takes the stage. The music geeks are hugging the walls or waiting in the next room drinking Guinness and listening to Fugazi. At about 12:30, Renee Scroggins comes on stage followed by her sisters Valerie and Marie, her daughter Nicole and her niece Chistelle. The music geeks and hipsters clear out of the bar next door and invade the dance floor. We look on stage and immediately feel better about ourselves. ESG is dressed a lot like us: baseball hats, sweatshirts and jeans. The first song is "You're No Good," the first song off ESG's masterpiece A South Bronx Story. The first thing I notice is they create a huge sound by playing very simple music. They are more punk than most punk bands.

Every song, I fall in love with one of the Scroggins on stage. Sisters, daughters, whatever. At first it's the drumming. Valerie pounds on those skins. You’d never be able to guess she drives an MTA bus. Her daughter picks up a guitar for the next song and the guitar comes to the forefront of the band. Renee starts shrieking and dancing in "Moody" and there is no other Scroggins in the world. The bass kicks in for "Dance" and Renee's daughter Nicole has stolen my attention. The bass lines are very simple. She exits and enters the songs perfectly. I can hear a hundred rap songs in that bass/drum combo. "My Love For You" is when Marie, who is directly in front of me, starts to play tambourine and congas and smash wooden sticks together while singing backup. She looks like a lady I’d pass without notice at the grocery store or on the subway rather than of a founding member of a band that changed the sound of hip hop. The show ends after the family is dragged back on stage by a collective “E-S-G” chant. Everyone in the audience is ecstatic.

Looking back on it now, I’m most glad ESG exists because the Scroggins sisters represent everything that’s wholesome about modern music. They remained independent their entire career, both economically and sonically, and most of all, they have a good time. You can tell they love the music and will keep on playing ‘til their grandkids are old enough to pick up a guitar and get on stage with them.

 Renee Scroggins on illegal sampling of ESG songs.

Photo from self-titledmag's Flickr