Chicago funk-jam party band Sneezy is quickly making a name for themselves as one of the Midwest’s most promising live music acts, and their kaleidoscopic sounds and energetic performances are propelled in no small part by Lakota East alumnus Danny Bauer.
“We performed at eighteen festivals this year, all over the country,” Danny says, including stops in Rhode Island, Florida, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina; the busy group even enjoyed a spot on the lineup for a Jam Cruise juggernaut, which traveled all the way to Cozumel, Mexico.
Thankfully, an upbringing centered around the arts helped prepare Bauer for the adventurous world he now enjoys. Danny’s mother, Susan (Eckart) Bauer, taught general music and choir since 1986, including general music at Lakota’s Hopewell Elementary from 1999-2014 and choir at Lakota West from 2014-2020. She currently serves as rehearsal pianist and pit accompanist for Lakota West musicals. Danny’s dad, Mark Bauer, also a retired Lakota teacher, played guitar in Eastside Jazz, and currently plays guitar in his own band, AM Gold.
It wasn’t long until Danny began taking formal piano lessons as a child, picking up familiar video game themes on his own.
“I was learning Zelda and Mario songs by ear,” he says. “That got me really excited.”
By seventh grade he and some buddies formed a punk trio called Sharp As Marbles. Experience in his school’s traditional and jazz bands—as well as another band with friends, called Skaboom—rounded out that period of his life. After high school, however, Danny set his sights on bigger stages and brighter lights.
After moving to Chicago, he found himself “throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck,” he says with a laugh. “I was playing a lot of weddings … I was making a whole bunch of YouTube videos. I was putting together bands that were playing some shows, but there wasn't a lot of passion behind it. I was doing comedy. I was going to the park to make up songs for people, just trying a lot of different things and truly being uncertain the whole way.”
In August of 2024, however, the already-established band Sneezy was in need of a new keyboard player.
“I kind of joke that I fell out of the sky and landed in Sneezy's lap,” Bauer says. “It was magic.”
Bauer explains that, although Sneezy takes their music seriously, it's also, as he describes, “like a circus for kindergartners.”
That jubilant party atmosphere is apparent at each and every gig—and, if you ask Bauer, it’s key to their success.
“Oh, man, we're making it to arenas,” he enthusiastically shares. “One of my favorite stories of this year was when we did the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Rhode Island. We left on Thursday, drove all day, drove all day Friday and then Saturday we played the festival 1 to 2 p.m. for about 2,000 people, and then drove the rest of the night Saturday and all day Sunday to get back home. We drove for literally 30 hours to play for one hour.
“But in that one hour, we played for 2,000 new people and made 2,000 new fans, and I think one reason this band is going to make it is because we're crazy enough to do that,” he says. “The shows have just been getting bigger and bigger, and next year we're already on the schedule for some big festivals.
“We’re ready to go to the top!” says Danny.
Getting Sneezy
Interested in joining the Sneezy party? You’re not alone—the popular band already has tens of thousands of followers online, both at their personal website and music-adjacent social media profiles. Fortunately, bringing yourself up to speed requires just a few clicks of a keyboard near you. Connect with the funk-jam band on Spotify, where their profile boasts a whopping 22,000 monthly listeners; Facebook, with 9,500 followers and counting; or Instagram, where the band already has 25,000 followers. Join the Sneezy party and get in on the fun!
Find Sneezy merchandise, including their new double LP, “Feed the Funk,” online. SneezyMusic.com