MANDRILL
(with Original PFunk and Rare Earth)

At Constitution Hall - Washington, DC (5/21/04)

 

 

At 8:05pm, Rare Earth started with some funk called "Big Brother" with some solid bass funk and some good vocals. "Born to Wander" featured some fast pulsating bass drumbeats and a snippet of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone"! "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" featured slower pulsating drumbeats with some more stank bass riffs!! The next song started out as a mellow tune with some good sax riffs, then turned into a funk explosion of "Get Ready", featuring some insane synthesizer and soaring guitar soloing (with some intense drumming).....most of the audience was jammin' on this thang! "Celebrate" was funky with some more synthesized funk! Rare Earth was done at 8:50pm.

 

At 9:10pm, Original PFunk started with some "Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples". "Standing on the Verge of Gettin' It On/The Funk is in The House/Pumpin' It Up" featured Ray Davis doing his "Pumpin' It Up" chant and the guitar army playing a little bit of "Get Off Your Ass and Jam"....the low point was that the breakdown (before the first chorus) was not tight....I could not tell if it was the drums that dropped out or something else, but it wasn't right. "Tear The Roof Off the Sucka" also had a low point....there was no Ray Davis intro (can you imagine that?). "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" and "Cosmic Slop" were great, especially the pyrotechnics of the guitar army (Gene Thomas, Lenny, and ___) and powerful drumming by Ben Powers, Jr. during "Cosmic Slop". "One Nation Under a Groove" was followed by "Flashlight" which ended the P party on a "high" note (high?) at 9:55pm.


PERSONNEL:

1.   Ray Davis - lead & background vocals

2.   Fuzzy Haskins - lead vocals

3.   Grady Thomas - lead vocals

4.   Gene Thomas - guitar

5.   Lenny - guitar

6.   ? - guitar

7.   Derrick Davis - bass

8.   Ben Powers, Jr. - drums

9.   Giles - keyboards

10.                     ? - keyboards

11.                     Emerald Davis - background vocals

12.                     ? - background vocals

13.                     ? - background vocals





At 10:25pm, Mandrill started with members of the band playing a lot of percussion (drumsticks and cowbells) as they strutted to the stage. "Mandrill" (the first song from the debut album) featured some good congas by Lou Wilson and a powerful drum solo by the Amazing Doctor of Funky Drums, NEFTALI SANTIAGO!! "Hang Loose" and "Cohelo" were followed by "Mango Meat", my favorite song with the Wilson horns blowing triumphantly (Lou Wilson, Dr. Ric Wilson & Carlos Wilson)!! "Suzie Caesar" featured raw lead guitar power by Marc Rey and some funky synthesizer riffs by Arlan Schirebaum!! "House of Wood" was so good because of all the vocal crooning by Carlos!! "Fencewalk" and "Get It All" were super-funky, especially the funk bomb "Get It All", featuring some powerful thumpin' bass by Michael Holden and some heavy organ riffing by Arlan (who was spinning himself around between playing sets of organ chords)!! Mandrill closed down the well-funked-up venue at 11:30pm.





PERSONNEL:

1.   Lou Wilson - vocals, percussion, trumpet

2.   Dr. Ric Wilson - vocals, percussion, saxophone

3.   Carlos Wilson - vocals, trombone, percussion, flute

4.   Wilfredo Wilson - bass, vocals, percussion

5.   Neftali Santiago - drums

6.   Marc Rey - guitar

7.   Arlan Schirebaum - keyboards

8.   Michael Holden - bass

9.   The One Sun Lion Ra - rapper



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