At
11:15pm, the Funk Dynasty started their soundcheck....and it was a LONG, FUNKY
ONE too...this was a birthday tribute show in honor of the legendary P-Funk
bassist/vocalist BOOTSY COLLINS, baby baba!! The only problem was that there was no
BOOTSY songs included in the show, except for a snippet of
"Psychoticbumpschool" on the sax...bandleader Eric-Jay stated that he
had some of that material slated for the show, but he wasn't feelin' well
enough to do the rehearsals for that stuff (TO ERIC-JAY, I hope that you are
feelin' better now.)
As stated before, Dave Mullen played the sax riffs of
"Psychoticbumpschool" on the soundcheck, and the rest of the band was
lyin' down some serious hardcore funk...the foundation of Da Funky Phish must
have been swaying to and fro in sync with the grooves, including the NASTAY
drum solo at the end (provided by Lamar), the jamming of 2 saxophones
SIMULTANEOUSLY (by Dave Mullen), and the funky clavinet work (provided by The
Pearl)!!! The first set actually started with "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked
Up)" was followed by "Cosmic Slop", featuring the ferocious rock
guitarisms of Groovalicious and passionate lead vocals by Lisa Michaels.
"Rhythm & Rhyme" included the scratch guitar funk & chorus of
"Let's Take It to the Stage". "Tear the Roof Off the Sucka"
was good, but it sounded like Lisa came in too soon on the first verse (the
band was playing the first horn part, leading to the first verse).
"Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples" was nice and funky, with the
thumpin' funk bass of Mark Bass! "Payback" was good with the double
sax trick by Dave, but it sounded like Eric-Jay started out mixing up the
lyrics to the song. The first set ended at 12:30am.
At
1:00am, the second Funk Dynasty set started with a good version of the classic
instrumental "Maggot Brain". "Dog Star" had some great
lead guitarwork but no one really noticed because the guitar was too low in the
mix. "Undisco Kidd" was a funk-de-force, with spaced-out
synthesizer riffs by The Pearl! "Red Hot Momma" was a red-hot rock
guitar jam with the delicious vocals of Lisa! "Get It Together"
sounded good even with the one sax playing, but I noticed that the band was
a little off because when Eric-Jay initially asked them to "hit" 1
and 2 times, there was no response. "Atomic Dog" was the funky
ending to the second set, with some standout bass lines and some good
percussion by Walter. The second set was over at 2:00am.
Submit suggestions or comments to [email protected]