Tribe of Millions took to the stage at 7:35pm. The
members of the group are Malo Adams (guitar, vocals), Lee Broadaye
(bass, vocals), and Greg Seay (drums, vocals). I met Lee and Greg at the
George Clinton birthday bash on July 22, 1998 (at the Lion's Den)....they were
very appreciative of my review of their show at Tramps (in Manhattan NYC) on
May 10, 1997, when they opened for Bernie Worrell & The WOO Warriors.
Anyway, Tribe of Millions funked up Brooklyn seriously with some phat ass
tracks, like the pop-rock favorite "Shine", a rocking version of
Funkadelic's psychedelic jam "I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got
a Thing", and the liquid-funky tale of "Stanley Jenkins" (with a
kick-ass gospel jam at the end of the song). The funky tribe didn't perform a
lot of stuff from their debut live album, Puddin' Head's Live Can of Whup
Azz (PHLCOWA)", which was kind of a letdown--but the show was still
funky, or as Malo put it, "This is the liquid show, y'all!" By
the way, find a way to put up the PHLCOWA album, the shit is
slammin'....funkier than a horse's ass!!!!
The tribe song set listing INCLUDED:
The Tribe's liquid show finished at 8:20pm.
Now that everyone was liquified (some were even evaporated), it was a good 40 minutes before the majestic legends of Afro-Latin funk, Mandrill, took to the stage. Before that, I signed their mailing list and bought a Tribe of Millions T-shirt, in support of my funky Minneapolis brothers of The Tribe!
At
9:00pm, Mandrill came to the stage and Louis Wilson (the bandleader) danced
close to the audience to rile everyone up! All of the Wilson Bros. were
there....Louis, The Doctor (Ric), Carlos, and Wolf (Wilfredo)! Long-time
drummer Neftali Santiago was also there!! Mandrill pumped out the best hits
from their first five albums.......it was a funk party!!! And everyone was HIGH, off of the
funky tune "Ape is High"!
"Cohelo" showcased Carlos's mighty
flute--and it was so heavenly! "House of Wood" was nice and
"Mango Meat" was definitely one of the high points of the show! I
don't remember The Drill playing "Children of the Sun" live......it
was a welcome treat! "Polk Street
Carnival" sounded good on album, but it sounded ten times better at the
show.....BRAVO to the band!! "Hang Loose" was scorching-hot with a
black guitarist that can play like no other guitarist could.....what
fierceness!!! DAY-UM!!! A rapper kicked some verbage over two of Mandrill's
songs, "Children of the Sun" and "Fencewalk". The Drill was slammin' with "Git It All"
before they left the stage at 10:07pm....but they returned three minutes later
for an encore performance of "Fencewalk" (some funky shit!)......there was a second encore performance at 10:17pm, where
the band played my ALL-TIME FAVORITE, the shake-your-moneymaker groove of
"Rollin' On"....DAMN! The crowd was on fire......BROOKLYN WAS
SHAKING LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE OF MAGNITUDE 8.0!!!! And when they went into the
gospel-funk rhythm section of the song, THAT WAS IT......people nearly fainted!
We were rockin' in the church of Brooklyn's Prospect Park and I wanted to
shout, "Hallelujah!!!!" The
gospel funk ended at 10:30pm and that was it! Mandrill (or The Drill) played
90 minutes of heavy-hitting, funk-so-hard-that-your-great-great-grandchildren-will-feel-it
music!!
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