Family man and trumpeter Shamarr Allen pulled off a triumphant return to Armstrong Park this weekend when he and his Underdawgs played at the Gumbo Festival.

Their boisterous brass set was a highlight of the weekend and enthusiastically received by the crowd, but things at Armstrong haven’t always gone so smoothly for Allen.

At a Jazz in the Park performance in September, the trumpeter’s request that family members be allowed backstage turned out badly for all involved (a scuffle with security, Allen’s mother ending up on the ground, the trumpeter’s arrest.)

Thankfully, all seems to be well now. Allen’s mother was seated comfortably backstage during Saturday evening’s performance, and his immensely talented young son appeared onstage to sit in for the drummer during one song.

The performance started off slowly, with a crowd that seemed far too sedate for the high-energy music.

The response to Allen’s urge for the audience to fill in the chorus of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” was half-hearted at best, prompting him to bark out a reproachful, if only half-serious, “y’all suck!” (He was right.)

However, the consummate performer was quickly able to get things going.

A feisty rendition of “My Girl Doesn’t Have Enough Sex With Me” (with lyrics just as hilariously frustrated as you would imagine) was all it took to start the placid party people boogying, and Allen proceeded through a set full of goofy antics that the crowd loved, singling out audience members that weren’t dancing and publically taking the piss out of San Francisco fans.

With the fusion-finesse characteristic of the younger brass band generation, Allen and his dawgs were able to marry traditional brass chops with stylistic elements of all kinds of contemporary genres, even pulling off a gritty, hard-rocking Nirvana cover.

By the time they finished their set with a rowdy Saints anthem, the crowd was stomping, dancing like mad, and definitely nailing their designated call-and-response lines.

Afterwards, an ecstatic Allen helped his younger son off the stage and then made his way over to the merchandise tent to hang out with friends and fans.

Certainly a more appropriate endpoint than a scuffle.