At 1:30am, Days of Wild got started with a long funky
instrumental (featuring the hot sax solos of Kareem) which later turned into a
vocal tune, featuring lead vocals by Stephane and backing vocals by Dave
"DD" Dawson and Roda. They performed a more rocked-out version of
"Sign O' The Times", thanks to the Wild guitar army of Jonathan Fritz
& Singh (on guitar) and Tak (on bass)!
From there, it was on to JB terrority with the James Brown suite of "Hot Pants/Get
on the Good Foot (horns were playing the bass riffs from the breakdown)/Takin'
Loud & Sayin' Nothin'"....Stephane was vocally workin' it like a man
possessed, even doing the famous trick with the mic stand! DD and Roda were
tight on the backing vocals! Tak took over and shook the Bitter End with some
mean, nasty bass thumping and Singh was playing some really good scratch-guitar
licks (the funniest part was hearing Stephane say about a thousand times,
"The boy got a strong wrist...he don't ever get tired!")
"Days of Wild" was cool with DD taking over the drummer seat (freeing
original drummer Guy to rest himself) and Dr. Brookenstein singing out
"These are the Days of Wild, hit me!" The high-energy "Sing a
Simple Song" was followed by the smokin' "Hide the Bone" (the
musicians were cookin')! "Make It Funky" was tight, including the
dance that the vocalists & Kareem were doing! "1 + 1 + 1 = 3"
featured some good drumming by Guy, nasty rhythm GOOD-tar by Jonathan and a
trombone spotlight by Sandroz. "Kiss" featured the lead vocals of
Roda, while "I Got a Feelin'" featured the "Cold Sweat"
bass riff and a very powerful drum solo near the end. "The Everlasting
Now" featured a little bit of jungle funk (with the bass and drum solo).
"Doin' It to Death" was followed by Roda's lead vocals on
"Superstition", which also featured some scatting/singing by a foxy
Afro-wearing woman named Amina. "Musicology" and "America"
were good, but more interesting was the inclusion of violinist Sunfree on
"Thank You (Fallentime Be Mice Elf Agin)" which featured lead vocals
by DD! Days of Wild ended their show on an interesting note, with a long,
Latin-tinged instrumental. At 3:50am, it was all over.
INTERESTING NOTE: This
is the first time that I've seen Days of Wild do more and more songs that were
not Prince songs ("Superstition" was performed because of a request
from a fan)...a lot of Sly Stone, James Brown and Stevie Wonder stuff. However,
one has to remember that Prince was greatly influenced by these musicians....so
it probably makes sense. Also, the band dedicated their show to the late George
Bragg, a very close friend of the band and a great drummer who had the pleasure
of playing with Jimi Hendrix back in the mid-60s.
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