At
10:10pm, the Bettye Lavette band began their set with a funky little instrumental,
for about 10 minutes before Bettye herself took stage. Bettye is a wonderful
soul/R&B vocalist whose voice would probably remind you of Tina Turner. The
first two songs that she performed were reminscient of the early 1970's
Funkadelic catalog....just some RAW, NASTY FUNK!! The third song was a soulful
ballad from the early 1970's. One of the show's highlights was the song
"It Serves Him Right", with the bluesy piano riffs of Allen and the
ripping lead guitarisms of William (in the beginning, Bettye was conversing
with a white woman in the audience). Bettye did an introduction of all the
players, with each player doing an all-out impressive solo....Allen's
N'awlins-style piano keyboard riffing (reminiscent of The Meters and Professor
Longhair), Williams's lead guitar riffs of the Ohio Players's "Fire"
breakdown, Dale Pearson's bombastic drumming, and Patrick's jazz-style bass
rumblings. After a few more songs, the show was over around 11:45pm.
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