18 February 2026

UPTOWN RULER CYRIL NEVILLE REIGNS SUPREME FOR MARDI GRAS | Berkeley CA | 02.17.26

PHOTOS AND ARTICLE BY GABRIEL DAVID BARKIN | PUBLISHED ON February 18, 2026

The Uptown Ruler!

The Uptown Ruler celebrated Mardi Gras in downtown Berkeley Tuesday night. For the uninitiated, the “Uptown Ruler” is Cyril Neville, a renowned member of N’awlins’ royal First Family of Funk, and the only one of the venerable Neville Brothers still performing. (Brothers Charles and Art died in 2018 and 2019 respectively; Aaron no longer tours and has not sung on stage in several years.)

The good times rolled at the Freight & Salvage under the auspices of 78-year-old Cyril, his son Omari Neville, and Omari’s band The Fuel. Seattle’s King Youngblood opened the show with a high-energy set of “Afropunk,” a mélange of funk, punk, and grunge.

Cyril Neville

Fun fact: “Laissez le bon temps rouler” is a calque of the English phrase “Let the good times roll.” (A “calque” is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation.) At least one historian traces the roots back to a French-speaking Cajuns adaption of the song title from Louis Jordan’s 1946 recording of “Let the Good Times Roll” (written by Sam Theard and Fleecie Moore). So there, you learned something today.

Not-so-fun fact: neither Cyril Neville, the Neville Brothers, nor the Meters are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Yes, Cyril was an official member of the band for a spell in the 1970s alongside his brother Art.) What. The. Royal Street in the French Quarter. Fuck.

King Youngblood joining the Fuel on stage

Perhaps there is no justice in rock and roll. But we digress.

The Freight & Salvage in Berkeley cleared some seats from the floor to make room for dancing on either side of the stage. The septuagenarian Neville on stage was as lithe and limber as those in the crowd eager to fill the wings with their dance moves – and it’s a fair guess that at least half of the folks who stood up to boogie were older than the headliner.

Perhaps they were trying to avoid the social stigma attached to remaining seated. Tour manager Lara Lavi (who has a long association with the Neville Brothers and is also the mother of King Youngblood frontman Cameron Lavi-Jones) urged the audience to dance in a pre-show pep talk from the stage: “If you’re still sitting by the end of this show, I will pay for your therapy.”

Father and son singing harmonies

Speaking of King Youngblood … you know how you go to a show, and you didn’t do your homework to check out the opener on SoundCloud? And you’re sitting there wondering, Was it worth showing up early to get a good spot for [fill in name of headliner here]? Will they suck? Will they be, well, Okay, but let’s move on to the headliner?

Cameron Lavi-Jones, King Youngblood

King Youngblood was worth showing up for. In fact, I want to go see them again! High-energy rock with out-front superstar vocals. Wicked-ass guitar leads. Punk cello player layering on the melodies thick and tasty. Cool manga-inspired comic book images of the band on the screen above them. Elements of Living Colour, Stone Temple Pilots – and a cover of “Black Hole Sun” in case you missed the Seattle connection. Joe-Bob says, “Two thumbs up!”

King Youngblood

Lavi returned to the mic to introduce the Nevilles, Cyril and Omari. She was brief, asking those who were in the theater to join her in yelling to the stragglers still out in the foyer:

“Everybody in the lobby, get yo’ ass in yo’ seat!”

The Freight on its feet

Omari Neville

(Which was ironic, since she had earlier told everyone they should get up to dance, but you get the point.)

Omari (on drums) and the Fuel played a few without the elder Neville to kick off the set. “Hey Pocky A-way” segued into Dr. John’s “I Walk on Gilded Splinters.” There was a refrain of “Whole Lotta Love.” Big nod to guitarist Gregg Molinario, super-shredder, whose MIDI-infused leads showed no mercy.

Gregg Molinario, the Fuel

And then the Uptown Ruler took reign on the stage.

Sir Cyril was lookin’ mighty swanky (as always) with a bandana tied around his knee and a black fedora with a feather in the hatband on his head. His long-sleeved, button-down shirt had ornate flowered cuffs. His neck was adorned with the kind of Mardi Gras beads you can’t buy in a tourist shop on Bourbon Street.

That tambourine! Tribute to Big Chief Jolly

The elder Neville wielded a tambourine like a scepter, commanding all to pay (a) attention to his august self, and (b) homage to his lineage. His instrument was painted with “Big Chief Jolly 13,” a tribute to Big Chief George “Jolly” Landry, uncle to the Nevilles and leader of the seminal 1970s Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe.

That tambourine shook the house on Professor Longhair’s “Tipitina.” Later, it went all reggae on a reworked version of the Neville Brothers’ own “Yellow Moon” (cowritten by Cyril and Aaron with Daniel Lanois, who produced their seminal 1989 album of the same name).

Father and Son Neville

To close the set, all the dudes from King Youngblood joined the headliners on “Soul Junction,” a brand-new, heavy funk groove released this year by father and son Neville with the Seattle rockers. Beads were thrown from those on stage to members of the audience (it was Mardi Gras, after all). Several generations on stage and dancing in the audience celebrated the confluence of ages, musical styles, cultures, and regions. The good times, they were rolling.

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