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George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars
Review 11/16/96 From: Mike Theiss
George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars: Live at The Fenix Seattle, WA November 16, 1996 [from rec.music.funky] CONCERT REVIEW or FUNKADELIC GROUPIE SET-LIST/ LINE-UP UPDATE by Mike "no I DON'T carry a notepad and pen into P-Funk concerts, my setlists are assisted by mechanical devices" Theiss Last night the P-Funk All Stars returned to the Pacific Northwest to throwdown the first of two nights of shows at the Fenix nightclub in Seattle, Washington. The Fenix is a very small club, so there was no room for the Mothership. But for those Seattlites that didn't have the oppurtunity to catch the Mothership land, at least the kind people at the t-shirt booth made available "Return Of The Mothership" t-shirts and baseball caps (gasp!), so that everyone could *say* they saw the Mothership even though they didn't! :-) All in all the show lasted 4 hours and 15 minutes and the band played material from as far back as "Music For Your Mother", Funkadelic's 1969 debut single up to "Summer Swim", the latest single from George Clinton's new album "The Awesome Power Of A Fully Operational Mothership". The show started with bassist Rodney "Skeet" Curtis, drummer Frankie Waddy and keyboardist Joseph "Amp" Fiddler oozing into the groove of "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)". Skeet in particular was really on fire last night. Maybe part of it was the fact that I was standing in the front row about 8 feet from his bass cabinet -- but, he really made that song, and many other great moments in the show that evening. Many other members in the band poured (or maybe I should say "dripped") onto the stage gradually. By the end of the song we had guitarists Billy "Bass" Nelson, Mike Hampton, Dewayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight and Andre Foxxe, Michael "Clip" Payne (who did George's "W.E.F.U.N.K...." radio DJ rap from the record), Garry Shider, Sheila Brody, The P-Funk Horns and a few other. The arrangement of "P-Funk" was long (about 20 minutes) including crowd chants and horn solos from trombonist Greg Boyer and trumpetist Bennie Cowen, but George didn't come out until a few songs later. "P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)" gradually transformed into a laid back interpretation of the underappreciated classic "Unfunky UFO". I must say it's great to hear this song -- as it's a song that seems to get missed for the most part just cause it happened to land on one of the best funk albums ever made (Parliament's "Mothership Connection"). I couldn't help but reminisce about some of the lousier concoctions in which rappers and DJ's have ripped from P-Funk records as Garry Shider sang the immortal lyrics, "We're unfunky and we're obsolete / and out of time / gonna take your funk and make it mine". Without even a slight break, "Unfunky UFO" was followed by a medley of P-Funk hits which included "Do That Stuff" (another song which hasn't been played much in 90's P-Funk shows), "Gamin' On Ya", "Undisco Kidd", "Up For The Downstroke". There was also a bit of newer material incorporated -- George first took the stage near the beginning of "Undisco Kidd" and in addition to that song's lyrics and vocal refrains he incorporated a rap from Public Enemy's "Cold Lampoon' With Flavor Fla.". The end of the medley was closed up with the group of vocalists (Including original members Ray Advise and Grady Thomas) singing the chorus of "Some Next Shit" off the "Dope Dogs" album. Then they launched into Parliament's "Flash Light" and did their classic 10 minute arrangement including portions of the jazz standard "Freedom Jazz Dance" and Funkadelic's "Electric Spanking Of War Babies". A set of newer P-Funk songs followed, including "Funky Kind", "Summer Swim" and "US Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog" "Funky Kind" really felt great in a live setting, and the band's stage arrangement of "Summer Swim" has really grown into a monster. After a lively interpretation of the song as it appears on the record they go into a vamp which features bassist Rodney "Skeet" Curtis performing a viciously funky Larry Grahamesque workout. This was one of several moments in the night where Skeet got to show off his stuff, taking a full length melodic solo in the way that I've never heard any other bass player do. Near the end of the song, George brought out one of his many relatives with an aspiring musical career -- this one being his daughter (yes *daughter* not his granddaughter, she came out later...) He didn't announce her name, but she was fair skinned (she was enough lighter than George that I would speculate her mother was most likely white) and looked to be in her 20's --- she was quite attractive actually... She sang a line that started out saying "Waaaaaaaaaade In The Water..." Then they did a slow arrangement of "US Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog". It was similar to the one they've been performing for over a year now, with a few variations. They have a new intro for the song. It consists of a chord progression that sounds like that of Digital Underground's "Sex Packets" (Now that's a new one! P-Funk ripping off Digital Underground???!!!!) When they got into the main part of the song, George SANG his rap! It was very different and cool. I must say that George's singing voice sounded really good last night. I've seen some shows where George's voice was really shot. Maybe they had a real good monitors set-up, I don't know; but he sounded more like the George on the old P-Funk records then the tired old George that's graced the stage on many P-Funk shows over the last couple years. By this point the show started to fall into a routine that has been typical at recent P-Funk shows, which may get sort of tedious if you attend their shows more than once every two years. But nevertheless, the performance was strong and inspired. After "Dope Dog" George rapped the lyrics to "Just Say Ding" acapella and that was followed by Belita Woods performance of the Otis Redding song "Loving You More Than Words Can Say" and Shonda Clinton (George's granddaughter)'s performance of "Underground Angel" and Louie Kababie's performance of the brilliant 1993 b-side "Booty" which as usual had the audience laughing their butts off with all the brilliant puns in the lyrics ("If I went to medical school I'd be a booty doctor, givin' butts a check up every time I try to clock 'em...") "Booty" was followed by the nasty "Hard As Steel" . I just wish the groove was as nasty as the lyrics. This is one of the of the studio hip-hop grooves that I don't think translates well in a live setting. I think they should just take one of the forgotten bass lines of P-Funk past and use that as a vamp to put behind this song. But even though the groove was a bit tedious near the beginning, Skeet started to embellish the bass line near the end and it got pretty funky. Then Skeet even got a long solo (which was brilliant to say the least). After that, most of the band members filed from the stage, as Mike Hampton, Blackbyrd McKnight, Andre Foxxe, Lige Curry, Gabe Gonzales and Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson came out to perform a tight rendition of "Maggot Brain". This song has really been spectacular in the last few months and the long rendition at this show was no exception. Near the end of the song Mike has traditionally played a descending line from the bridge of Funkadelic's "Alice In My Fantasies". Mike starts it off and the other members join in and vamp on it a couple times. The band really decided have fun with it last night and instead of vamping on it a few times, they vamped on it for a few *hundred* times -- it was pretty intense. Kidd Funkadelic got all the way live on top with some more solo action once the band got the groove going. Next was Blackbyrd's feature "Fly On" (a.k.a. "Dog Star"). He did an extended feedback intro before the song which made me wonder if the spirit of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix was in the house. Ya'll should have heard the sounds coming from Byrd's Marshall last night! Lige sounded particularly great on this song as well. Though the song was mostly done as an instrumental, at the end of the song George came out and sang the lyrics. Next up, "(Not Just) Knee Deep" was played in it's usual extended jam form (a good 20-25 minute work out) featuring solos by Greg Thomas (scatting) and Mike Hampton. Garry Shider led an interesting twist to the "Give Up The Funk"/"Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples" medley as the vocalists sang lines from the 1976 Parliament jam "Funkin' For Fun" ("If you see my mother, tell her I'm all right / I'm just funkin' around / for fun") Shortly afterwards Garry even sang portions of "Dr. Funkenstein"! After "Thumpasorus Peoples" wound up, original Funkadelic bassist Billy "Bass" Nelson took over the bass duties as the band performed "Atomic Dog". Midway into the song a fight broke out just to the right of the stage. George Clinton and the rest of the vocalists expressed their disapproval of the ordeal by leading the audience in chanting "FUCK THAT SHIT!!!!" Since the horns had already exited the stage (for good) the usual JB medley that often follows "Atomic Dog" was bypassed. Billy Bass and Frankie Waddy were apparently unaware of the situation as both of them where heard playing the groove to James Brown's "Give It Up And Turnitaloose" -- then hesitating until eventually the band launched into "Mothership Connection". The arrangement was sort of bare sounding without any horns, but it was all good. Vocalist Paul Hill was featured in the "Swing Down" portion of the song. No spaceship descended from the sky at the end of the song, but it was a good thing, cause if one would have, the band members would have all been crushed (very small club -- there was only about 5 feet on the front of the stage between the guitarists rigs and the stage monitors. Both the guitarists *and* the vocalists had to share this space. The main house cabinets were placed down on floor below the stage, cause their just wasn't room up top). Finally, was the FUNKADELIC portion of the show! Frankie Waddy (who covered the drum duties for a good 3/4 of this 4+ hour show) came up to the front of the stage and threw his sticks into the audience as Ron Wright took over the throne. Billy "Bass" Nelson led the band playing the bass line from Funkadelic's "Music For Your Mother". Mike Hampton's bluesy rhythm guitar work on this song was really great. George started off the song with the rap from "Martial Law", which was a rather brilliant combination I thought. As he rapped "Funk is dead is what they said....", the band played one of the earliest P-Funk grooves as George put the song in a modern perspective lyrically. Naturally, George got the crowd chanting "Whoa Hah Hey...." and quoted lines from a few early Funkadelic classics "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" etc., then the groove slowly metamorphisized into that of "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow" which was exploited to it's fullest as the band's closing jam. So -- now that I've blabbed on and on (and on and on....) about what songs they played -- would you like to know how the SHOW was??? Comparably, this isn't the BEST P-Funk show I've ever seen -- but I've seen them 13 times in the last 3 1/2 years, and how can you compare anything to seeing the band land the Mothership in the middle of Central Park with Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and the Brides of Funkenstein? But I must say that the band is sounding pretty solid these days though. If you would have removed Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins performances from the Central Park shows -- the show last night would have definitely been a lot stronger than the non-Bernie/Bootsy portions of those shows. Overall the band was very tight and they put on a solid, inspired and lengthy show. The one complaint I've had about recent P-Funk shows is the drummer situation. Frankie Waddy has sounded suprisingly good at the last two shows I've seen, but he seemed to get sloppy near the end of the show last night -- I would like to see Gabe Gonzales and Ron Wright play more. Gabe, who has sounded very promising, only played on "Maggot Brain" and "Fly On" last night. Ron played on "Funky Kind", "Summer Swim" and the "Music For Your Mother"/"Free Your Mind..." medley at the end of the show. The bass duties were split up pretty well. Skeet is definitely the strongest of the current bassists in my opinion, and he played most of the show. He sounded particularly godly last night. Lige took over during "Dope Dogs", "Loving You More Than Words Can Say", "Maggot Brain" and "Fly On". Billy Bass played on "Atomic Dog", "Mothership Connection", "Music For Your Mother" and "Free Your Mind..." Bride of Funkenstein Sheila Brody was in the house. She didn't do "Vanish In Your Sleep" but she was singing a lot of the semi-lead vocals at the front of the stage throughout the night. She was featured prominently on "Funky Kind" in particular. What WASN'T at the show? Cordell "Boogie Mosson was missing in action as was Tracey "Trew Lewd" Lewis. "Cosmic Slop" and the "Standing On The Verge" medley were not included in the set last night either. ------------ SET LIST ------------ P-Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) Unfunky UFO Do That Stuff Gamin' On Ya Undisco Kidd/Cold Lampin' With P-Funk/Party Up In Here (chant)/Up For The Downstroke/ More Undisco Kidd / Some Next Shit Flash Light Funky Kind Summer Swim US Custom Coast Guard Dope Dog Just Say Ding (monologue) Loving You More Than Words Can Say Underground Angel / Booty Hard As Steel Maggot Brain Fly On (Dog Star) (not just) Knee Deep Give Up The Funk/Funkin' For Fun/Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples Atomic Dog / Rhythm & Rhyme Mothership Connection / Swing Down Sweet Chariot Music For Your Mother/Free Your Mind... LINE-UP ----------- Lead Jokalist and Blaster of Ceremonies: George "Dr. Funkenstein" Clinton Quack Daddy vocals and Rapadelics: Michael "Clip" Payne (AKA "Slavedriver to the Man In The Box") Main Thang Sangers: Garry "Starchild" Shider, Ray Davis, Sheila "this time my last name's gonna stick I swear" Brody, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper Otis Redding Impersonator: Belita "George is gonna get me a new jammie any day now..." Woods Other Thang Sangers: Grady Thomas, Steve Boyd, Paul Hill, Shonda "what she said" Clinton, Louie Kababie, ? (George Clinton's Daughter) Baddass Muthapluckers AKA six-thinged strang twangers: Michael Hampton, Blackbyrd McKnight, Garry Shider, Andre Foxxe Williams, Billy "Bass" Nelson Booty Do Your Duty Shakers (bass guitars) : Rodney "Skeet" Curtis, Lige Curry, Billy "Bass" Nelson Synthasaucers and pee-an-owes: Joseph "Amp" Fiddler, Joel "Razor Sharp" Johnson Take Your Dead Brass Homies with Hornies: Greg "I'm gonna learn how to be a ninja and play my horn at the same time" Boyer (trombone), Greg Thomas (alto sax), Bennie Cowen (trumpet) Drums: Frankie "Kash" Waddy, Ron Wright, Gabe Gonzales WARDROBE UPDATES -------------------------------- (yeah, I know, I thought this was getting to be a poor excuse for a "review" too...) Andre Foxxe ditched his Wedding Dress (for the night anyway) in favor of wearing a velvet skirt, tie-dyed Hendrix T-shirt and a hat with a whole lotta feathers on it. Blackbyrd was wearing PAJAMAS! A big red one piece sweat suit with a zipper down the middle Garry Shider got a new diaper that has a big red "P" on the crotch. On the back it says "Booty Duty" and has a picture of a Stozo drawn alien. Mudbone was REALLY decked out with black lipstick, and a bunch of face paint and stuff that made him look like one of the bad guys in any telvision show from the early 80's that takes place in a jungle (or more recently "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Part Two") SPECIAL SHOUT OUT goes to Dino -- a rec.music.funky-ateer that I just HAPPENED to bump into at the show. Damn, it really *is* a small world isn't it? HOW WAS NIGHT TWO DINO??????