Mummies invade campus, bring funk to Emens

The drum set pulsed with blood-hued light, beating like a heart in the darkness as smoke drifted across the stage Saturday. An eerie feeling, not unlike that of a tomb, fell over John R. Emens Auditorium as the music died and all went quiet.

Doors behind the audience opened, and mummies thundered down an aisle and up to the stage.

With grace more than their declared “ancient age,” Here Come the Mummies began their funk-fueled performance.

They danced as they performed their music to combine pelvic gyrations with complex steps and hand motions to the beat of the songs. Smoke wafted across the stage and multicolored lights swept across the audience to bathe the band in a foggy glow.

The audience got a free lesson on dancing the “Fenk Shui,” one of the act’s songs, as the Mummies wildly gyrated onstage. During the song “Pants,” confetti exploded from a pipe held between one mummy’s legs. In the middle of “Petting Zoo,” a mummy dressed in a gorilla suit thrusted his way across stage in order to beat a drum without using his hands.

Here Come the Mummies performed more than 20 songs at Emens, where the band disco-pointed during funk songs and danced salsa to Latin music-inspired tunes.

After two hours of jamming with the living, Here Come the Mummies retired to their crypts.

“We love you, Muncie,” they shouted after the music swelled, and then the sounds to be heard were clapping and shouting.

When the lights went out, they vanished.

After the show, Here Come the Mummies were not as vocal as they were on stage, as they greeted the audience to sign autographs, take pictures and give hugs.

Trumpet player B.B. Queen grinned, grunted and groaned as he signed tickets and took photos as the audience crowded around the band.

“It was awesome,” David Cole, a Ball State student, said. “It was just a lot of fun. I played saxophone in band in high school, so I was really interested in that part of it. It was definitely worth coming.”

Offstage, the only noises to be heard from the performers were long moans and grunts as they mingled with the crowd in character.