WESTBROOK – The Westbrook Performing Arts Center will be one funky place this weekend as local legends Motor Booty Affair will be beaming down from “planet Funktar” to bring their brand of fun and music to the city.

But this time, there’s a twist. The four members of the band will have some company on the stage for this show, which will kick off Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The band will be accompanied by the Maine Pro Musica Orchestra as they present “Classical Night Fever,” a series of popular 1970s music with the backing of the 30-piece orchestra.

This isn’t the first time that the band has brought their particular brand of funk and fun to an orchestra. About two years ago, Motor Booty Affair played two sold-out shows with the Portland Symphony Orchestra at Merrill Auditorium, and then last September, the band went to Bangor and did a show for 3,000 people with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

Now, it’s Westbrook’s turn.

Band member Cyclone Link Skywalker Jr. (the band members stay in character both on and off stage) said Motor Booty Affair has a particular connection to the city.

“Westbrook is the sister of the capital of the planet Funktar,” Skywalker Jr. said. “And I am the ambassador of that relationship between planet Funktar and Westbrook, and when we’re here on this planet, I make my home in Westbrook.”

So, with that link to Westbrook, Skywalker Jr. said that they began to work with a local arranger, Terry White of Westbrook, and soon a new show emerged.

“We arranged a whole classical disco show,” Skywalker Jr. said.

“It’s all ’70s disco hits that everyone’s going to recognize,” said the band member known as Superfly. “We chose songs from that era that feature orchestration. A lot of those songs, the originals that you heard on the radio from that era, had full orchestras on the recordings, so it’s a real cool fit for us to be able to play with an orchestra. The arranging was easy because you didn’t have to create the arrangements, they were already there.”

“To hear it in its full glory, live with an orchestra behind you, it’s pretty cool,” Skywalker Jr. agreed.

Even though they have played with orchestras in the past, Motor Booty Affair is primarily used to playing rock shows as a four-piece band, but they said they are up to the challenge of sharing the stage with 30 professional musicians, most of whom are most used to playing selections from Mozart rather than ABBA.

“It is the coolest thing we have ever done,” Skywalker Jr. said. “You really have to be on your game when you’re playing with an orchestra, because they’re such professionals. It all comes down to the charts and how the charts are written and our charts are great.”

Additionally, playing pop music with a traditional orchestra allows the band to bring the music back to its roots, so to speak. Nowadays, most pop music is generated by microchips rather than actual musicians, and the band wants to show that live musicians can produce a better product than a computer.

“Pop music has changed and dance music has changed over the years,” Superfly said. “And to find a real acoustic instrument on a current hit, you have to be lucky, it’s all computers and synthesizers and stuff.”

The band is excited to team up with the Rockport-based Maine Pro Musica Orchestra and its conductor, Janna Hynes, saying that they feel Hynes and her orchestra will be a great match for “Classical Night Fever.”

“Janna is very well-versed in the pops world,” Skywalker Jr. said.

Hynes, who also conducts an orchestra in Virginia, said she, too, is excited about teaming up with Motor Booty Affair.

“I think this is great,” she said, adding that the band reached out to her last year. “I really love the fact that they’re in Maine and we’re in Maine. They’re just so enthusiastic and they have a great reputation.”

While the selection of music in the show is unusual for an orchestra, Hynes said she isn’t worried about it.

“All of our players are very versatile,” she said. “This is going to be really fun. Everyone will know the music.”

With the orchestra on board, the band has been working hard to make sure that they know their parts inside and out (because of union rules, the band and the orchestra won’t have a chance to work together until they rehearse on the day of the show). “We’ve rehearsed more than we’ve rehearsed in years,” Skywalker Jr. said. “Because some of the arrangements are a little bit different than we do them.”

“The level of musicianship with this and most professional orchestras is top-notch,” Superfly said. “We have to be on our toes and it’s a great challenge and a great thrill to be able to pull this off.”

Motor Booty Affair is also looking forward to playing at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center. Both Skywalker Jr. and Superfly had high praise for the theater.

“That is such a beautiful facility, and we really wanted to feature the Westbrook Performing Arts Center,” Skywalker Jr. said, calling it a “state of the art” theater. “And let the people in Westbrook see what they have in this town.”

“The theater was built with acoustics in mind, so the show is going to sound as good there as it will anywhere, probably better,” Superfly added. “We want people to be able to hear every note of every instrument of that orchestra and that’s a place where you can. That place is acoustically amazing.”

“We’ve played over 3,000 shows over the last 15-20 years, and this is the most technologically advanced theater we’ve ever been in,” Skywalker Jr. continued. “It’s a gem that the people in Westbrook really need to be exposed to.”

“Classical Night Fever” is also going to give back to the city. Skywalker Jr. said that the both the Westbrook Community Center and the Westbrook Music Boosters will receive a portion of the proceeds from the show, though the high school music students will have to a bit of work for their money.

Skywalker Jr. said that during the show’s first set, the high school horn section will join the band and the orchestra on the stage, and in the second set, the high school chorus will be singing ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”

And Motor Booty Affair has big plans for the show, as the band members say they are hoping to take it national, and they even plan to shoot a promotional video in Westbrook this weekend.

“We’re getting calls from all over the country (about this show),” Skywalker Jr. said. “When people hear about this concept, they’re completely blown away by it. There’s nothing like it out there, and show like this will put a lot of people in the seats for orchestras.”

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