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George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars
Review 09/16/97 From: Clement Pappas
Venue: The Stone Balloon, Newark Delaware.. less than 1000 people The lineup: Vocals: George Clinton, Michael "Clip" Payne, Robert "P-Nut" Johnson, Steve Boyd "(I think??), Treylewd (Booty only) Guitars: Micheal "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton, Dewayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, Gary "Starchild" Shider Bass: Rodney "Skeet" Curtis, Lige Curry, Billy "Bass" Nelson Drums: Frankie "cash" Waddy, There was another drummer, but I didn't catch who it was (couldn't see back there too well) Horns: Greg Thomas, Bennie Cowan, two guys I've never seen before Keyboards: Have seen this guy a few times now, but don't know his name-- he wears a bandanna and generally sucks!! MIA: Grady Thomas, Louie Kabbabie, Shond Clinton, Greg Boyer, Shiela Brody, Belita Woods, "Sting" Ray Davis, Sir Noze I think I might be forgetting a few people, but you get the idea Setlist (Order might be a little rough) Music for my Mother (instrumental) Several Chants over several different riffs which I can't really remember all of Standing on the Verge Rythm & Rhyme Pumpin it Up..Bustin Loose If anybody gets Funked Up Underground Angel Booty Flashlight Knee Deep Maggot Brain Dog Star (Fly On) US Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog Databoy (Black Death Version) Give up the Funk Night of the Thumpasourus People > Bootzilla > Night OTTP Atomic Dog Hall of Fame Riff (W/ Music for my Mother mixed in) First of all, this was a great venue, really small and intimate with the band. Got a chance to hang out w/ Clip before the show and a little later on when I was taking a rehydration break. Clip is a really cool guy, very down to earth. He was chillin with his 5 mo.'s pregnant wife at the merchandising table, who was also very cool. Talked with them for a while, he mentioned Grady and some other old schoolers were in the process of making an old school P-Funk album. (He didn't seem impressed though) The crowd at this place was great too. Really loud and really into it. Mostly U of D college people with the usual diverse mix filling out about 20% of the crowd (old school 70's funkers, hippies, any other kind of people you could imagine) The crowd was loud as shit, when the band stopped playing at times, I literally couldn't hear my own voice screaming! I'm not going to go through each tune, but here are the highlights: Maggot Brain- Mike Hampton went to town on this one. It was a good 20 minutes long and he went in directions I've never heard. I guess the band was pysched to just be able to play without a time limit (like in Smokin Grooves, which the band called "The Prison Tour" - They were fined $1000 bucks for every minute they went over the 1:00 hr. limit!!! They even had a clock counting down the seconds-- ridiculous) Anyway, I've seen them play this tune at least 10-15 times and this ranked right up there with the best of them. I can't really put into words what he did, but suffice to say it was smokin. Dog Star- The usual rendition of this nasty tune, with Lige & Blackbyrd tearing it up. What was intersting, is that I had to go get a drink of water (I was really hot up front) at this point. I noticed Clip at the merchandising table. Clip usually does the intro to this tune -- "Funk upon a time..", but he realized it was coming on too late to wade through the crowd to get back to the stage, so he gave his wife and I a private concert of the lyrics to this tune. Flashlight- One the best tunes all night despite the noticable lack of Sir Nose. Everyone came out on stage and this was what really set the crowd off for the entire night. It was loud, tight, fast and smokin the whole time. Included some cool add ins to the tune too, like "All Around the World for the Funk." The horns section had a great arrangement towards the end of the tune which eventually led to "Under the Sun, Under the Sun,.." The horns part lasted probably 5 minutes with the place going crazy. They each took turns giving solo's with G. Thomas solo being the best. One lowlight- the trumpet player's solo was not good at all, he missed some notes and was generally not good. The arrangement though, was super tight. Hall of Fame Riff - They're definitely going places with this. It was super super tight. At one point, George started pointing at different musicians in the band during the pauses in the riff, and they would solo the next time. He went from Gary to Blackbyrd to Skeet to Billy Bass to the keyboardist. Gary and Skeet's stuff was excellent, Billy Bass was easily the best and after going through the rotation a few times, he stuck with Billy for about 10 times in a row, with Billy somehow inprovising better and better each time, pretty amozing stuff. Lowlight: The keybord player- GC points at him and he didn't even attempt anything, George goes to him again and he sucked. That was it for him. I don't know who this guy is, but I've seen him a few times now, and IMHO he sucks! Underground Angel - Probably the worst tune of the night. The had about five guys trying to sing high voices to make up for the lack of any women vocalists, and George sang the lead. None of them could really hit the notes, and the tune hurt from it. This tune is not one of they're best in my opinion anyway, and it wasn't nearly as good as it usually was anyway. Booty- No Louie, so Treylewd came out and sang it with George. I think this song is kinda fun, though its strating to lose its noveltiy. I'm also not a big Treylewd fan. I can never hear what he says and his voice isn't great to begin with. But, with that said, the tune started off kinda boring, but the chemistry of GC and Tracy got better as the tune went off, and it ended with a bang as the band cranked it up at the end, taking the nasty, but usually low-key bassline of this tune and bringing it all the way up at the end. Databoy - Interesting version of this tune. It reminded me of the "Black Death" version of Rythm and Rhyme because it was heavy, loud guitar, and George screaming it angrily. He started in with the "Fuck that Shit" and "Fuck the Dumb Shit" screams and the crowd happily obliged him. Night of the Thumpasourus Peoples - The Tear the Roof lead in to this was good but wasn't special. There was also no "Tear the roof off the mother, tear the roof the mother sucker, tear the roof off the sucker" chant between the two, but the horns were incredible. They also went into parts of Bootzilla ("Wind me UP) which worked really well. Pumpin it Up..Bustin Loose - Just an all around great version. Really tight. I was dancing pretty hard during this tune and don;t remember who especially good in it, but it was super tight and loud, and like myself, most of the place couldn't stop dancing to this tune if they tried. (esp. Bustin Loose) Knee Deep - Always one of my favorites. Wasn't much different than recent versions they've played, but I love it just how it is so it was fine with me. They went through all the usual chants and riffs in this wandering tune, and as usual brought it back to "She's a big old freak, she's a big old freak, she's the freak of the week" after about 15 kinutes. Also, G. Thomas did his scat thing, which was also great. He kinda teases the crowd with it. He starts with stuff thats really easy to repeat (doo be doobie doo), and then moves on to stuff no one in the audience can do (scat dat dat dat da doo dat dat da.. you get the point). The whole show was about 3.5 hours. It started at 9:30 and ended just before 1:00 when the place must shut down by law. It definitely wasn't the longest or the Best P-Funk show I've ever seen, but it was damn good. The band was generally real happy, and the crowd was extremely loud and extremely in to it. Last note- Clip told me that they played the night before in DC (9/15). He said it was the best show in recent memory and that I should get a tap of it. In fact, he said he wanted a tape of it! Any info on that show or anyone with a tape of it, please email me. Later, Clement