UK funk act The Heavy have their songs everywhere — TV shows, TV commercials and all sorts of new media — but if you’ve never seen them live, you’re missing a serious live show. Their set at Fuji Rock’s White Stage in the middle of Saturday afternoon was the best I saw at the festival all day, and this was confirmed by someone I’ve never met, who in random conversion late at night spontaneously declared The Heavy to be the band of the day.

As a lead singer and frontman, The Heavy’s Kelvin Swaby is like a man among children, commanding the audience to his funky wishes. His is funk with a very classic feel, an impassioned soul singer delivery and leading the band with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Musically the group has a bit of a harder rock edge in the guitar and bass riffs, but never so hard that it pushes the music outside of a genre that’s easily recognizable as funk.

The Heavy’s big hit in Japan is “Same Ol'”, which is the soundtrack to a Pepsi commercial and served as the set closer. My favorite was “Last Confession” for its hard driving groove. It just rocked like a sonofagun. The band’s repertoire of four albums is so strong there was never a lull. The Heavy have been honing their skills in front of big festival audiences at festivals like Coachella and SXSW all year, so we should hardly be surprised at how good this was. They definitely get their names onto the short list of “best live acts around.”