This
night marked the premiere release of the Funkshunal Entertainment Roster
Sampler CD, a collection of funk and R&B tracks by three groups that
are presently signed to Funkshunal Entertainment: Rhythm Republik, Mary
Harris & Sharief in Burgundy.
I was in charge of packaging all fifty copies of the CDs (inserts & CD
labels), which took a LONG while to complete!!
I
caught the last ten minutes of the show with the All Mighty Senators. The All
Mighty Senators is an alternative-type funk group with a drummer that doubles
as a lead vocalist. The drum set was up front (on the stage) and the lead
vocalist stood there, playing drums! The drumming was crisp and the bass
riffs were funky. The song "Future Shock" was the funkiest song
in the set. The All Mighty Senators started their set around 9:10pm and ended
at 9:45pm.
Mary
Harris started her set at 10:15pm. The intro of the first song featured some
dynamic bass riffs by Ben and smokin' guitar riffs, courtesy of Sharief Ali.
Sharief (of Burgundy fame) later dazzled the folks with his electric wah-wah
guitarisms! "Waste of Our Time" was very good, but "Shine"
was the FONKAY ending to the M.H. experience, with some good keyboard work by
Ted! "Mary, Mary.....quite contrary....how did you ever get your funk
light to glow? Girl, you so funky with the skins and I love your
positivititties!" Mary Harris ended her set at 11:00pm.
Rhythm
Republik started at 11:40pm with a pretty good version of "Sweatshop
Blues", but my problem was with Lady V (of Koffee) who filled in on
drums. She is not as heavy or bombastic as Wildstar. Of course,
Groove-A-Licious (The Guitarist Formerly Known As John Willis) set the sound
system afire with his guitar wails! The funk continued with "Stay
Broke". "Disposable Culture" was nice and heavy, and
"Mystikal Luva" was better with some of Pearl's (The Keyboardist
Formerly Known As Eric Wilson) colorful keyboard funk. "Daddy I
Wonder" was very good--as FUNKMASTER GENERAL aka TAKFAKA (The Artist
Formerly Known As Kregg Ajamu) hummed some notes, Groove-A-Licious mimicked
them on electrifying guitar. Vocalist Elaisa sounded very good on "All
Saints Fall". "Sunchild" was the jam, but suffered because of
the lack of bombastic drumming (done before by Wildstar). "Never
Put Me Under (Rise Up)" started with a hard-rock intro with guitar wailing
and thumpasorus bass licks by Mr. Bass. The Rhythm Republik experience
ended at 12:30am.
Enemy
Squad got their shit started at 12:55am with a funky version of "If It
Fits (Do You Swear It?)" and "Anti-Prozac", the latter being
a nasty-funk tour-de-force with Kevin Hagan ripping up the airwaves with fierce
lead guitarisms! "Trick Chick Jane" featured an ultra-funky
intro of K.C.'s (Kerry Clark) heavy-duty bass antics & more of Kevin's
lethal guitarisms! "Loose Booty" was a welcomed treat with
Nowell Haskins (of Funk-Kinn) providing backing vocals to Ron Smith's
groove-inducing scratch guitar licks! Even better was the addition of Billy B and
Brides of Funkenstein/P-Funk's own Sheila Horne on lead vocals! (Sheila has the
power to vocally & physically work the crowd......and ya know what I mean
by "physically") "United State of Mind" was FONKAY with solos by each
band member. Ron Smith & Kevin Hagan provided equally electrifying
axe-slaying solo riffs while KC kicked ass on his hard-thumping bass
solo......KC was picking the strings with his teeth!! (Hmmm.....I wonder about
this brother's dental bills......shit! I bet that in one year, KC would have
enough money to buy a minivan if he didn't play BY TEETH!! Ha ha ha!!) Gabe's
drum solo was enough to tear the Wetlands down to its foundation! "Prankster
Boogie" was good, but "Sticky Liquid Funk" was better with the
ending "I wanna go home....take me home!" The funk-rock sound got
a little too thick & noxious to some folks, but I like it like that!!!!
The encore performance of "Love War" (at 2:07am) was very good, with
Ron Smith's stirring lead guitarisms, but still it's LIGHT-YEARS AWAY from the
original version that was performed at the Wetlands in December 1997, which is
not good!! The band surprised the shit out of me with their rendition of
Funkadelic's "Alice in My Fantasies"......BLEW EVERYONE'S FUCKIN'
MINDS! Ron Smith got really dirty on lead guitar and KC's bass was smokin'!
The shit ended at 2:20am.
There were
some special guests that attended the show. People like Nowell Haskins, Michael
"Clip" Payne, Belita Woods, and Sheila Horne. It was like the first
FUNK-O-RAMA show all over again!
Submit suggestions or comments to david.brooks@brookenstein.com