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George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars
Review 03/30/99-03/31/99 From: Mike Theiss
George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars Live at the Fenix, Seattle, WA Tuesday March 30th and Wednesday March 31st, 1999 [from rec.music.funky] A few promising rumors convinced me that I had to get tickets for BOTH nights of the P-Funk All Stars shows at the Fenix last Tuesday and Wednesday here in Seattle. The first was that Shock G aka "Piano Man" of Digital Underground was to be touring as P-Funk's second keyboard player, the second was that Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall was touring as one of the band's bass players!? Neither prospects came to fruitation, but I'm glad to say that both evenings were more than worthwhile, even at a steep $27 ticket charge for each night. Since many of the key players have exited stage left in recent years (Ray Davis, Grady Thomas, Mudbone Cooper, Greg Boyer and most recently Rodney "Skeet" Curtis) one might think the P-Funk All Stars shows just might not have it anymore. I'll have to beg to differ (though I understand those people's reasons for leaving...) With Wednesdays show being my nineteenth P-Funk All Stars show in nearly a decade's worth of P-Funk concert going (September 4, 1989 was my first P-Funk show), I've come to know what to expect at a P-Funk show. Neither show was the best P-Funk show I've seen and in some respects they're doing the same old shit, but as usual, the shit's still funky. From the start of "Bop Gun" at the beginning of Tuesdays show, to the end of "Super Stupid" at the closing of Wednesday's show, everything was on the One. More importantly though, I'd like to point out that from what I remember, both shows were considerably better than the show I saw last time P-Funk came through town (December 1997) and that was when Skeet was still with them and they had a 4 piece horn section. One of the biggest changes I've noticed is that in the last year and some change Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson has really blossomed to fill the shoes of the P-Funk keyboard chair nicely. Probably a big part of it is that Razor is FINALLY playing decent gear on stage! Previously, I remember seeing Joel playing nothing but a Korg M1 at a show. The M1 is a very plasticy sounding early 90's (late 80's?) digital keyboard. For me, seeing a P-Funk keyboardist on stage with nothing more than a Korg M1, is liken to trying to take Mike Hampton seriously playing "Maggot Brain" on a ukulele, or like a construction worker showing up for a job with his 8 year olds little wooden tool kit. But, while he didn't have Bernie Worrell's arsenal of classic 70's synth gear, Razor now at least has the tools to get the job done. He was playing one of the newer Korg keyboards (Trinity?) which made for a pretty convincing clavinet sound through a wah-wah pedal, a newer Roland synth and one of the older Roland JX series boards (with the a classic resonant synth sound perfect for "Atomic Dog"). He also has all of the parts down now, where I remember him missing some key figures last time I saw him play. At Wednesday night's show the band played a stretched out version of "Up For The Downstroke" and George had the band break it completely down to nothing but Razor playing and the crowd clapping. While nobody can compare to the Wizard of Woo himself, Joel's performance was a good tribute. He started with the afformentioned Atomic Dog sounding patch on the Roland keyboard playing some funky syncopated riffs, then switched to a string batch on the newer Korg and played some very Worrellesque style improvisations. I used to think Razor lost his funk power years ago, but I'm happy to say he proved me wrong the other night. Good to see him back up to par. It was nice to get funked by the sheer power of the P-Funk Guitar Army again too. After seeing Bernie Worrell and the Woo Warriors totally thrown down with a single guitarist, in a sense I sold my stock in the large guitar squad --- that is until they returned on Tuesday night. As usual, Blackbyrd and Mike Hampton were on lead, and Garry and Boogie were on the rhythm. But though it's not the first time I've seen him play guitar, this time BILLY BASS really stood out on rhythm guitar in addition to the aforementioned P-Funk guitar masters. Dare I say, IMHO he's a better rhythm guitarist than a bassist!? I mostly noticed this the first night --- I think the soundman had Billy's rig particularly high in the mix. Call me ignorant, but I used to think Billy just played rhythm guitar so he had something to do while Skeet and Lige were throwin' down. Again, I was wrong --- he holds his own as a rhythm guitarist in the baddest funk guitar crew on the planet. Some Highlights of the two shows: -THE GOOSE during night two. Any P-Funk show with the Goose is a winner for me. (Hell, ANY show with The Goose, seen Fishbone play it a few times too...) Greg Thomas really went off with a vocal solo in this song. -SUPER STUPID during both nights. Not a song I have known them to play regularly if I've even seen them play it at all before. First night in particular was the bomb. Mike Hampton was ON FIRE. Seeing Mike doing his Knee Deep and Cosmic Slop solos, hell even Maggot Brain sometimes gets dull as he pretty much plays the same thing note for note every night. So I cherish the oppurtunity to see Mike just cut loose and GO OFF. He did that in Super Stupid on Tuesday. Wish he'd do that more regularly. -When George is doing the "Radio Friendly DJ's" thing with "Ain't Nothin' But a Jam Ya'll" the band has been playing the RHYTHM part from "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow" to back him up. They've been playing the other vamp from this song in their shows for years, but have never seen them do the heavy rhythm vamp from the first part of the song. This combination works great, and they're even using the turnaround from the original song as well, which is intense on stage. I don't know if this is a new routine for them, but they must have loved playing it as much as I enjoyed listening, as they played this routine TWICE on Wednesday night's show! -George putting his mic down during "One Nation" and screaming at the top of his lungs to egg the crowd on (The band cut completely out except for the drummer who was playing quietly) -George is doing a routine during the "Hall of Fame" riff where he sticks his hand out and uses it to signal the band's volume. He brings it all the way down to the floor and the band comes to near silence and then jumps around to different levels as the band plays accordingly. I think the sound engineer was following too. Clever routine! - Steve Boyd doing "Bop Gun" in spitting image style tribute to Glen Goins - Trey Lewd's "Billy Boy" routine, the nursery rhyme twisted lyrically to accomodate the Bill Clinton / Monica Lewinski scandal. -Completely different sets each night. Of course this was particularly refreshing the second night as I expected I might see a re-run of sorts. I would say overall the second night was a much better show. Probably didn't hurt that the band had the chance to get a good night's sleep without having to jump on the road to the next gig! Ron Wright got to play more of the set the 2nd night which helped make it for me. Some lowlights: -Garry was completely out of it during "One Nation" the first night. This is pure speculation on my part, but I believe he had two too many to drink during his break during the Trey Lewd Rap/Maggot Brain segment that he was off stage. He admitted his voice was out of shape (not that it wasn't obvious) then told the band not to sing! Steve Boyd had this eyes rolled in his head "Oh Lord..." look on his face during the escapade. So, for the first part of the song the band played it as an instrumental with Scott Taylor on the flute and Bennie Cowen on the trumpet stepping in to play the vocal melodies. Later the vocalists came in of course, and when George Clinton came out he led the crowd singing the hook as I mentioned previously. -Knee Deep was dragging like hell.... I could be mistaken, but wasn't Knee Deep a dance tune at one point in time? Wouldn't know this from seeing a P-Funk show of late. George would make it a ballad these days if he could get away with it. Is this discophobia? Seriously, the record is at nearly 115 beats per minute, they played it around 90 BPM the other night. I just don't get it. In general, the show was totally devoid of uptempo songs --- Flash Light was played on the slow side too. I'm all for slow groovy numbers, but the variety is needed in the show, and I don't wanna hear a slowed down Knee Deep any more than I wanna hear a double-time Maggot Brain. Not that this is the first time the problem has occurred, but I wanted to address it regardless. It takes some effort to sit through a 4 hour plus show, and uptempo tunes get your blood flowing so it doesn't seem so long. In addition to speeding up Knee Deep and Flash Light, they should bring LOOPZILLA back into the set! Anyway, overall it was a great two evenings of entertainment, and One Nut Stand funked up the 700 Club the next night for a solid three evenings of funk in Sea-Town!!!! Personell: Lead Guitar: Blackbyrd McKnight, Michael Hampton Rhythm Guitar: Garry Shider, Billy "Bass" Nelson, Cordell Mosson Bass: Lige Curry, Billy "Bass" Nelson Keyboards: Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson Drums: Frankie "Kash" Waddy, Ron Wright Man in the box: Michael "Clip" Payne Trumpet: Benny Cowen Alto Sax: Greg Thomas Tenor Sax/flute: Scott Taylor Vocals: Steve Boyd, Garry Shider, Belita Woods, Robert "P-Nut" Johnson, Greg Thomas, Michael "Clip" Payne, Trey Lewd, Lige Curry, George Clinton Set list from 3/30/99 Bop Gun Gamin' On Ya Undisco Kidd Cosmic Slop Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On/Good To Your Earhole /Pumpin' It Up/Bustin' Loose/ Street Level/If Anybody Gets Funked Up (It's Gonna Be You) Flash Light /Freedom Jazz Dance (not just) Knee Deep Booty Billy Boy Trey Lewd's nasty Rap over "Supergroovalistic..." bassline Dope Dog / Biological Speculation (monologue) Maggot Brain Fly On One Nation Under A Groove Give Up The Funk Up For The Downstroke Atomic Dog "Hall Of Fame Riff" / Free Your Mind & Your Ass Will Follow Radio Friendly DJs / Ain't Nothin' But A Jam Ya'll Alice In My Fantasies Super Stupid Music For Your Mother Set list from 3/31/99 P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) Funkentelechy Cosmic Slop Radio Friendly DJs / Ain't Nothin' But A Jam Ya'll /Free Your Mind & Your Ass Will Follow Give Up The Funk Up For The Downstroke Yank My Doodle Booty Billy Boy Supernastylistic Trey Lewd Rap Dope Dog / Biological Speculation (monologue) Maggot Brain Fly On One Nation Under A Groove Flash Light Freedom Jazz Dance (not just) Knee Deep The Goose Atomic Dog "Hall Of Fame Riff"/ Free Your Mind.../Radio Friendly DJs / Ain't Nothin' But A Jam Ya'll/"The Funk Mellow Tip" rap Alice In My Fantasies Super Stupid / ..and Your Ass Will Follow