FUNKY METERS
(with Michael Tolcher)

At North By Northwest- Philly (4/8/04)

 




Guitarist/vocalist Michael Tolcher!

At 9:30pm, Michael Tolcher and his band started their performance of some rock tunes, with some funk tossed in here and there. The band sounded very good, especially Michael, the lead guitarist, and the drummer Lefty......actually, the best part of the performance was listening to some bad-ass powerful drumming by Lefty! (THIS GUY SMOKES!!!) Actually, Lefty gave my friend a couple of his autographed drumsticks after the FUNKY METERS show.....and this drummer's main influence is.................DENNIS CHAMBERS!! (Talk about a man who knows his drummers!) The Michael Tolcher band was over at 10:15pm.



Click here for pictures of Michael Tolcher




Original METERS organist, Art Neville!

At 10:40pm, the FUNKY METERS began their N'awlins music set with "The World is a Little Bit Under The Weather (Doodle-Oop)", featuring an arousing organ solo by the master, Art Neville!! "You Gotta Change (You Got to Reform)" was a funky tune that started with David Russell Batiste accidentally tossing a drumstick at George Porter's head (and hitting him).....it was funny to see the look on his face when he looked back at David! "Africa" was good, except there was no drumbeats heard for part of the intro. Sly Stone's "Thank You (Fallentime Be Mice Elf Agin)" featuring a funky, funky bass groove by George Porter Jr.....that was followed by the Caribbean-influenced "Soul Island", featuring some lyrics added to the song and the chorus was changed (all by Art Neville).....well, just for one minute....then, it was back to the actual song. Following that was my friend's favorite "Keep on Marchin'"....the groove marched on and on into "Love Slip Up On Ya" (Art's vocals are a definite pleasure to hear!) before going back into five more seconds of the "Marchin'" groove.




David Russell Batiste & Lefty, backstage!


"Big Chief" was a hellified party song that got all asses in the place shakin', including one fool who was jammin' on a "star" tambourine! David Batiste had the audience do the intro chant to "Cissy Strut" (Awwwwwwwwwwwww, ya!) before the band started playing the song....about one minute later, the audience had to do the intro chant again......the bass grooves were smokin', the guitar riffs were nice (by Brian Stoltz), the organ riffs were funky, and the drumming was tighter than a baby's ass! "Fiyo (Fire) on the Bayou" featured the audience doing the chant "Fiyo on the Bayou"......a funky song featuring Art on lead vocals! The first encore featured the ballad "Ain't No Use", a song that featured Art on lead vocals, with a great backing vocal section (George and Brian) and some hellified lead guitarisms!! The second encore was "Look-a-Py-Py", featuring the audience doing the intro chant from that song and the "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww, ya!" chant (before the band jumped into full gear). A funky, funky ending to the night at 12:20am.



Click here for pictures of the Funky Meters



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