FUNKY METERS
(with Michael Tolcher)
At North By Northwest- Philly (4/8/04)
Guitarist/vocalist Michael Tolcher!
At
9:30pm, Michael Tolcher and his band started their performance of some rock
tunes, with some funk tossed in here and there. The band sounded very good,
especially Michael, the lead guitarist, and the drummer Lefty......actually,
the best part of the performance was listening to some bad-ass powerful
drumming by Lefty! (THIS GUY SMOKES!!!) Actually, Lefty gave my friend a
couple of his autographed drumsticks after the FUNKY METERS show.....and this
drummer's main influence is.................DENNIS CHAMBERS!! (Talk about a man
who knows his drummers!) The Michael Tolcher band was over at 10:15pm.
Click here for pictures of
Michael Tolcher
Original METERS organist, Art Neville!
At
10:40pm, the FUNKY METERS began their N'awlins music set with "The World
is a Little Bit Under The Weather (Doodle-Oop)", featuring an arousing
organ solo by the master, Art Neville!! "You Gotta Change (You Got to
Reform)" was a funky tune that started with David Russell Batiste
accidentally tossing a drumstick at George Porter's head (and hitting him).....it
was funny to see the look on his face when he looked back at David!
"Africa" was good, except there was no drumbeats heard for part of
the intro. Sly Stone's "Thank You (Fallentime Be Mice Elf Agin)"
featuring a funky, funky bass groove by George Porter Jr.....that was followed
by the Caribbean-influenced "Soul Island", featuring some lyrics added
to the song and the chorus was changed (all by Art Neville).....well, just for
one minute....then, it was back to the actual song. Following that was my
friend's favorite "Keep on Marchin'"....the groove marched on and on
into "Love Slip Up On Ya" (Art's vocals are a definite pleasure to
hear!) before going back into five more seconds of the "Marchin'"
groove.
David Russell Batiste
& Lefty, backstage!
"Big Chief" was a hellified party song that got all asses in the
place shakin', including one fool who was jammin' on a "star"
tambourine! David Batiste had the audience do the intro chant to "Cissy
Strut" (Awwwwwwwwwwwww, ya!) before the band started playing the song....about
one minute later, the audience had to do the intro chant again......the bass
grooves were smokin', the guitar riffs were nice (by Brian Stoltz), the organ
riffs were funky, and the drumming was tighter than a baby's ass! "Fiyo
(Fire) on the Bayou" featured the audience doing the chant "Fiyo on
the Bayou"......a funky song featuring Art on lead vocals! The first
encore featured the ballad "Ain't No Use", a song that featured Art
on lead vocals, with a great backing vocal section (George and Brian) and some
hellified lead guitarisms!! The second encore was "Look-a-Py-Py",
featuring the audience doing the intro chant from that song and the
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww, ya!" chant (before the band jumped into full
gear). A funky, funky ending to the night at 12:20am.
Click here for pictures of the Funky
Meters
Go back to my home page
Submit suggestions or comments to [email protected]