JOHN HICKEY BAND
At The Moose - Doylestown, PA (12/1/06)
John Hickey, guitar mastermind!!
I
arrived late at 10:45pm to hear the funky sounds of the John Hickey Band
thumpin' throughout the building. After finishing up a funk cut, keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Fitz
treated the funkateers to a very, very rare funk treat...it was one of the
songs that Quazar had set to release on their first and only 1978 self-titled
album, but that song (along with at least five others) were pulled at the last
moment...it was called "One Hell of a Thing"...Gregg performed some
soulful synthesizer riffs along with the thumpin' bass of Billy Perk Puryear
(THE PERKILATOR) and Gregg's stirring lead vocals...not to forget the
additional vocals of his sister, Cissy Fitz! The next song was Stevie Wonder's
"Superstition", sung by Gregg who played some pretty nasty clavinet
riffs...not to forget the blazing guitar riffing of the one and only John
Hickey!! "Superstition" morphed into "Atomic Dog" and the
entire club was panting & barking to the nasty groove. BY THE WAY, DID I
SAY THAT THIS WAS SOME NON-STOP FUNK??!! The boys kept it coming with "The
Means of Production" and "I Do What I Wanna Do". The boys slowed
it down a teeny bit with "Brokedown", but went back into heavy fast
funk overload with a red-hot instrumental which included a little bit of
"See a N", featuring the powerhouse drumming of Troy White and
smelly, stanky bass riffs of Perk! That was nothing 'cuz the band jumped into
"Super Stupid" with some ferocity...John rules as one of the BADDEST
lead guitar players today!!!! The first set was over at 11:30pm.
Vocalist Cissy Fitz, saluting with the P-Funk sign!
At 12:00 midnight, the band started their second set
with a new funky instrumental, followed by the first performance by this band
of the Funkadelic classic "Good to Your Earhole"...a very good
performance (even if some of the guys forgot the lyrics). Cissy was the star of
the next song, Rufus & Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good"...it
was a good performance, although I think I've heard better cover versions of
the song. For the intro to the next song, the B. Worrell-esque synthesizer
riffs (provided by Gregg) stinked up The Moose, followed by the bass, drums
& guitar (in that order)...it was a mildly funk tune called "Get the
Band Drunk". At the end of the song, some obedient fans followed suit by
bringing the musicians drinks by the boat-full!! The band performed a couple
other cuts before doing "Down With The Ship" (which drove fans into a
dance craze with Gregg's futuristic synthesized blasts) and my personal
favorite (because I know two people that fit this description)
"Deadbeat"...the funk-rocker cut loose a plume of smoke larger than
any six-alarm fire! "Pot Top" was a countrified funk thang with a
nice sing-a-long chorus, followed by "Cosmic Slop" with John blowing
fans away on some heavy-duty lead axe slaying!! It was on to Quazar territory
again with the heavy funk romp with an serious 'tude, "Funk With a Capital
G"...and boy did my man Perk have serious 'tude on da bass!! (BASS-SPANK,
baby baba!) Well, I had to get out before I got brain damage, so I left at
1:35am.
BY THE WAY, MAKE SURE THAT YOU CHECK THE JOHN
HICKEY BAND AT THE BITTER END IN BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT (*** NOT THE BITTER
END IN NEW YORK CITY.....THE ONE IN BRIDGEPORT, CT ***) ON NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!!!
Click here for pictures of The
John Hickey Band
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