An updated tour list is available at pfunkarchive.com
-P-Funk Tour List-
George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars
Review 03/29/97 From: Dr.Brookenstein
At the Electric Factory in Philadelphia Let me say that this concert was FUNKIER than the one on Sept. 1, 1996 at the Robin Hood Dell East. There was more stuff from the early Funkadelic era and from the "Dope Dogs" album at this concert (3/29). The show began at 8:35pm with the opening act, Cool Bone. [Now can someone tell me.....why would the P-Funk Allstars need an opening act?? This is the first time that I've heard of the P-Funk Allstars having an opening act!! The P-Funk concerts are FOUR freakin' hours long and everyone had to STAND in the concert hall. Because of the opening act and (I believe) some technical problems, there was a 20-minute break between Cool Bone and the P-Funk performances. Also, the entire show lasted about FIVE HOURS AND 15 MINUTES!!! The show ended at 1:50 AM!!! WHEW!!!!] Anyway, Cool Bone is a new "brass hip-hop" group straight from New Orleans, with a cool, jazzy sound. The members of the group all play horns (trumpet, saxophone, tuba, trombone) and two members are lead vocalists. Some of the songs that were performed were "You Gotta Sweat When You're Black" and "Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee" (A Tribute to Muhammad Ali). By the way, the album is very, very good!!! Cool Bone's set ended around 9:25pm, and from there it was a 20-minute wait before the P-Funk Allstars came to the stage. Suddenly, a familiar person walked onto the stage and everyone felt the arrival of the Mothership--it was the one and only O.G. bassist, William "Billy Bass" Nelson (YES!!)!!! Two minutes later, Dwayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight and Frankie "Kash" Waddy appeared! A few minutes later, Michael "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton and Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson walked onstage. Billy Bass started jamming on his bass and the band jumped into the long instrumental jam of "One Nation Under a Groove", followed by the lengthy instrumental of "Red Hot Momma", which was too funky!! About 25 minutes into the show, Garry "Doowop" Shider came onstage and started singing the lyrics to "Red Hot Momma", assisted by the crrraaaazzy Mike "Clip" Payne.. ...this is a bad-ass song! Garry was wearing his patented cloth diaper with the words "BOOTY DUTY" written on the seat!! And the front of the diaper had the letter "P" on it, with an arrow(?) pointing downwards. [Hmmm...I wonder if the "P" is supposed to mean P-Funk or ..... ] Hahahahahahaha......what a hilarious wardrobe! One thing is true: Garry has a lot of balls!! [Ehh...no pun intended, ok!] Then, the group launched into "Hit It & Quit It", a SUPER-funky hard rocker once again sung by Garry. I was wondering what happened to George Clinton because he wasn't on stage with the rest of the band, when suddenly Dr. Funkenstein himself appeared!! Everyone in the audience went wild! Before Clinton appeared, other P-funkers walked onto the stage (Lige Curry, Robert "P-Nut" Johnson, Steve Boyd). I saw Tracey "Treylewd" Lewis standing at the far left of the stage, towards the back. Song set: One Nation Under a Groove (long instrumental jam) Red Hot Momma (long instrumental jam) Red Hot Momma Hit It & Quit It (incorporating "Get Off Your Ass and Jam") Standing on the Verge of Getting It On Good To Your Earhole (incorporating portions of "Pumpin' It Up" and "Bustin Loose") All Sons of Bitches If Anybody Gets Funked Up (It's Gonna Be You) (with the line "We're funkin' over here, up there ain't shit!!" ....an adaptation of the line from the Prince/Clinton collaboration "We Can Funk") Flashlight (ending with the chant from "Foot Soldiers") Tear The Roof Off The Sucker (Give Up The Funk) (incorporating "Get Off Your Ass and Jam") Night of Thumpasorus Peoples U.S. Customs Coast Guard Dope Dog (rap) (slow version) U.S. Customs Coast Guard Dope Dog (slow version) (incorporating lines from "Fifi" and most of the song "Just Say Ding (Data Boy)") More Than Words Can Say (sung by Belita Woods) Underground Angel Booty (rap by Babblin' Louie Kabbabie) Yank My Doodle (performed over the music to "Nappy Dugout", ending with a tiny portion of "Hard as Steel") (Not Just) Knee Deep (ending with a portion of "Rubber Duckie") Atomic Dog Pleasures of Exhaustion (Do It Till I Drop) (ending with a portion of "The Freeze (Sizzleanmean)") Rhythm & Rhyme (rap with "Maggot Brain" as background music) (ending with a portion of "The Freeze (Sizzleanmean)", again) Maggot Brain (ending with some music from "Super Stupid") Dog Star (Fly On) Summer Swim (with "Wade in the Water", ending with a guitar riff from the fast version of "I Call My Baby Pussycat", the infectious chant from "Music For My Mother" and a tune from Belita Woods, called "Sentimental Journey") Music For My Mother (incorporating parts of "I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got a Thing") Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow (incorporating portions of "Me and My Folks, You and Your Folks" and "I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got a Thing") Do It Till I Drop" chant from "Pleasures of Exhaustion" The highlights of this show: At end of the song "If Anybody Gets Funked Up", George led the crowd on the ground floor in the chant "We're funkin' over here, up there ain't shit!" (referring the crowd on the second floor balcony)...this is an adaptation of the line "We're funkin' over here and over there ain't shit" from the Prince and George Clinton song "We Can Funk" off of Prince's soundtrack album GRAFFITI BRIDGE. "U.S. Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog", "Fifi", "Rhythm & Rhyme" and "Just Say Ding (Data Boy)" are examples of hilarious, vulgar and perverted shit that can only come from the mind of George Clinton. During the "Booty" rap, Babblin' Louie Kabbabie came out and rapped some lyrics from the song, with George bobbing his (Louie's) head back and forth....very funny! "Pleasures of Exhaustion" was a lovely addition to the song set, with Sheila Brody singing co-lead with George. What was really funny was seeing this other woman (in a yellow shirt) rubbing her hand along Sheila's leg [hmmm....interesting!]. This was the same woman who (a few minutes ago, during "Atomic Dog") ran up to George and placed her hands around George's legs and started dancing, hunched over with her face in George's crotch!!). George started dancing with her, lifting his leg like a dog pissing on a tree!! (WOOF!) Belita Woods's singing is DA BOMB! She shared lead vocals with George on "If Anybody Gets Funked Up" and "Summer Swim". She did solos on the songs "Sentimental Journey" and "More Than Words Can Say". It was great to hear some old OLD Funkadelic shit....for example, "Music For My Mother" is the shit--the chant "Whoa-hah-hey, whoa-hah-hah" is really infectious and funky! "I Got a Thing" is good, without the wild guitar and drum jams that's on their first album. Towards the end of "Summer Swim", Billy Bass played the crazy opening guitar riff from the fast version of "I Call My Baby Pussycat" (recorded by Parliament)...this guitar riff was later used in the song "Hardcore Jollies" from the Funkadelic album HARDCORE JOLLIES. "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow" is the least interesting song, whether live or on the album (in my opinion) but it sounded better live--"Clip" Payne does a lot of the "rambling"!! [Boy, do I enjoy his yowls and screams!!!!!!!] I was surprised to hear pieces of "Super Stupid" and "Nappy Dugout". "Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples" is a great crowd pleasures!! The chants are great to hear in concert! "Underground Angel" featured rapping by LaShonda Clinton with her grandfather George! Treylewd did his rapping on his song "Yank My Doodle", a funny & strongly perverted track [hmmm...like father, like son! Before the show, I saw him outside talking to his friends....actually, I was about a foot away from him. Someone called him over ("Hey Treylewd...what's up?!") and I was thinking "This cannot be "the" Treylewd......well, it was!! DAMN!) Cool Bone came back during the performance of "The Freeze (Sizzleanmean)" and played their horns! Steve Boyd performed the scats on "(Not Just) Knee Deep"....very good!! Sir Nose came off during "If Anybody Gets Funked Up", looking at the P-funkers in disgust. But, he danced during "Flashlight" and did his contortionist act! At the end of the show, Frank Waddy threw four drumsticks into the audience [I wish I was closer to the stage!] and "P-Nut" gave some people (who were next to the stage) high-fives. The Players for the Philly show: George Clinton - Headmaster of Funk William "Billy Bass" Nelson - bass Mike "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton - lead guitar Lige Curry - guitar, shouts, background vocals Frank "Kash" Waddy - drums Sir Nose - dancer, contortionist Garry "Doowop" Shider - guitar, lead & background vocals Steve Boyd - lead & background vocals Sheila Brody - lead & background vocals Belita Woods - lead & background vocals Mike "Clip" Payne - lead & background vocals, crazy attitude Robert "P-Nut" Johnson - background vocals Louie "Babblin'" Kabbabie - raps LaShonda Clinton - raps Joel Johnson - keyboards Dwayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight - guitar Tracey "Treylewd" Lewis - raps