NAPPYHEAD FUNK ARMY
At Leavy's Last Stop Cafe - Huntington, NY (Long
Island) (7/18/03)
At 11:10pm, the Nappyhead Funk Army began
their intense workout of funkativity exercises, but there were changes in the
line-up.....sadly, Ms. Red Hot (Tanya Thillet) is no longer an official soldier
in the NHFA, due to other interests. Also gone from the army is The General
(Carlton Collier), the heavy bass or bottom behind "Bottoms Up" and
"It's What I Do, It's What I Am". Both will be greatly missed! Now
the good news, OG bassist Gary Bordies (remember him?) is back in the mix
(YES!!!!!) and the guest drummer for this performance was a guy named Rodney
(no "The Technician" aka Kevin Harrington or "The Hat" aka
Ainsley Taylor).
"Funk Army Mash" was the first Funk Army throwdown and the lead
vocalist #9 carried the song well, even in the absence of Red Hot's female
vocal touch! "Funk Infection Y2K+3" was followed by "Fly on the
Wall", featuring ripping lead guitarisms by Groovalicious and some
standout synthesizer riffs by Prez......oh, and Rodney was hittin' em pretty
damn hard on the drums! A new song, "The Callipygian Theory" (theory
relating to the booty) featured Eric-Jay on lead vocals and rap....it was a
slightly mellower funk tune with a rather simplistic keyboard intro by The
Pearl, some wah-wah guitarisms by Groovalicious, and solid bass lines by Gary
Bordies! Following that was another funk tune called "You Make Me Feel
Like Funkin' (Wanna Sing a Song)" featuring Groovalicious on lead vocals!
"Sexy MF/Housequake" was obviously something better handled by Red
Hot.....two other things: (1) there was no "Sex Machine/Get on the Good
Foot" portion included in the song and (2) "Housequake" sounded
pretty good and definitely worked better for #9 than the normal segue into
"Nasty Girl"......no further comments necessary! Fearless leader #9
brought Dr. Brookenstein to announce that the dressed-up, funked-out one is now
responsible for updating the Nappyhead Funk Army website. Dr. Brookenstein was
doing some additional vocals on the intro to "Tear the Roof Off the
Sucka"! Cameo's "Single Life" and "Candy" were good,
but Ohio Players's "Fire" was better with some fiery lead
guitarisms....of course, it was still a couple of light-years away from the
original recording! The band did a special request, Bob Marley's
"Could You Be Loved?", a nice reggae rhythm track with good
percussion by Eric-Jay! "Cosmic Slop" was full of heavy guitar and
bass power! Gary threw down hard on a long funk slap-bass intro to "It's
What I Do, It's What I Am"!! "Dirty Vamp" sounded okay vocally
but the song really needed Red Hot! "Bottoms Up" was done in a mellow
tune. "Unfunky UFO" was the ending to this funk feast, a hardcore
nasty funk-de-force with the chant "Somebody said that funk was dead, why
did they lie....it's still alive!" and some of that Brides's "Party
Up in Here".....#9 was sprawling on the floor in the ultimate of
funkgasms! Just enough funkativity to make the walls of Leavy's Last Stop
melt!!! The show was over at 1:35am.
As a sidebar, #9 was in serious form, vocally and physically, as he moved
about the stage in high-energy form. He repeatedly asked the fans to imagine
themselves watching TV with their clickers (remote control units) and surfing
through channels just to come across the first ever funk channel, featuring the
Nappyhead Funk Army with your host #9!!!!
Submit suggestions or comments to david.brooks@brookenstein.com