GEORGE CLINTON & THE P-FUNK ALLSTARS
At B.B. King's Blues Club - NYC (9/14/02)
What else could a funkateer ask for??? A
wonderful performance by the amazing George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars!!!
B.B. King's Blues Club in New York City was set ablaze due to the heavy-duty
funk of the Allstars, as they rocked the place for nearly three and a half
hours!! THC Mercenaries was the hip-hop band that opened for George Clinton
& Co. and they were pretty good......it was cool to see Blackbyrd and
"Diaperman" Garry Shider backing these guys on guitars!!
At
9:15pm, the P-Funk Allstars riled up the crowd with some of that "Mommy,
What's a Funkadelic?"........the vocal chants were funky and infectious
and I loved the way that Garry threw in the lines "Kiss me baby"
(like Eddie Hazel did back in the day)!! Billy Bass Nelson provided the
stank-ass bass riffs, while Blackbyrd got off on electrifying lead guitar on
"Mommy"!! (I love the old Funkadelic shit.....it's too damn
funky!!)
"Funkentelechy" featured the hellified
bass solo work of Mr. Lige Curry........Lige is a serious threat on some
bass!!!!! Also, setting the club afire on lead guitar slaying is the #1 threat,
Mike "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton!!!!!!!!!
"Undisco Kidd" was funky, especially
when Belita Woods came out and did some funkalicious vocals on her part called
"The Way She Moves"!!! "Bop Gun" was good, and was followed
by "Gamin' on Ya" (featuring the horny goodness of horn players Greg
Thomas and Bennie Cowan......I'm sorry if I was unable to see all of the
horn players.....was Scott Taylor there?) "Mothership Connection"
featured some "Rumplesteelskin" and "Everything is on the
One" (featuring a nasty guitar, bass & horn breakdown!)! Sheila Brody
was on hand for some powerful vocals, singing "The mothership connection
is here!!!" Brides of Funkenstein-style!! "Up For the Down
Stroke" was pretty good. The drummer, Frankie "Kash" Waddy,
kicked major ass on an unreleased gem called "Bounce to This" as
George Clinton and some co-lead vocalists sang the lyrics!
"I'm Never Gonna Tell It" was the
definite low point of the show, as the band did the song in a classical
feel......totally drained the funk out of the room! (DAMN!) This white woman
was doing the lead vocals and her overly-classical voice just didn't fit with
the caliber of veteran P-Funkettes like Sheila Brody and Belita Woods.....just
totally out of her league! One other person that would do a funk song like
that with a classical feel would be Bernie Worrell, but Bernie would have had
enough sense to add something extraordinarily funky from his magical WOO-board
(keyboard).....and possibly a good dose of humor to wash away the worry lines
from the funkateers!! On the plus side, Eric McFadden was on the duty of
saving the song from total ruin by ripping some strong lead guitar riffs, on
the solo tip!!
"Maggot Brain" featured the electrifying,
pyromaniacal lead guitarist, Kidd Funkadelic, doing so much axe-slaying to the
satisfaction of his predecessor, guitar god Eddie Hazel!! "Dog Star (Fly
On)" featured the bass-slaying Lige Curry and the super-fiery guitar
antics of Blackbyrd!!
"One Nation Under a Groove" started
with a good and slow funky groove intro. "Somethin' Stinks and I Want Some"
was stinking good, with the raps of "Ms. All That", Shonda Clinton
(go on wit cha bad self!!)! George was tossing out chants of "Take Your
Dead Ass Home", "We Be Funkin' Over Here and Over There Ain't
Shit", "Get Off Your Ass and Jam", "It Would Be Ludacris to
Think That We Are New to This.....We Do This....This is What We Do!!!",
and a little chorus from a popular Mystikal song, ending with "You ain't
seen nothin' yet!" The band even did a little bit of the song
"Slingshot" (originally by Jimmy G and the Tackheads). "Radio
Friendly DJs Spin For the Funk" was also part of the show. "Atomic
Dog" was followed by the "Hall of Fame" riff.......which was
followed by the hardcore nasty funk of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"......the
guitars were a-blazing and so was the nasty synthesized riffs of Razorsharp!!!
The show was over at 12:35am.
The personnel: George Clinton (legendary maggot overlord), Garry Shider (rhythm
guitar & lead vocals), Blackbyrd (lead guitar), Michael "Kidd
Funkadelic" Hampton (lead guitar), Tracey "Treylewd" Lewis
(rhythm guitar & lead vocals), Eric McFadden (guitar), Lige Curry (bass),
Cordell Mosson (bass), Billy Bass Nelson (bass), Frankie "Kash" Waddy
(drums), Joel "Razorsharp" Johnson (keyboards), Michael
"Clip" Payne ("man-in-the-box"), Bennie Cowan (trumpet),
Greg Thomas (sax & lead vocals), Belita Woods (lead vocals), Steve Boyd
(lead vocals), Sheila Brody (background vocals), Paul Hill (background vocals),
Robert "P-Nut" Johnson (background vocals), Sir Nose ("dancing
Sir Nose") and airbody else I don't know or I missed.
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