Years ago I brought Slapbak's first cd "Fastfood,,,". funky cd for sure. Checked out their website lately, but have never seen them live (being on the east coast myself) and performing live is the true factor of being really funky. Any orgers on the west coast can give me an out take on their live performances?

Don't tell me none of you folks heard of "Slapbak"? They are out of Orange County Cal.Jara Harris(leader) has played with literally everyone from Bootsy, P-Funk, Cameo, Randy Jackson etc. I know somebody out there on the west coast can give me some info.

jw1914 said:

Yeah, I'm hip to them. I played on the same bill with them at The Whiskey back in 97. They've been around a long ass time. Cool band.

I remember some Slapbak. My favorite joint off of Fast Food Funkateers was "Singles" that was the greatest song that Prince and Sly Stone never collaborated on.

You wouldn't happen to have either one of their follow-up albums would you?

blackguitaristz said:

So Blackg-, how are they live?[b]
[b][Edited 2/24/05 11:18am]

jw1914 said:

I've seen them twice. At the gig that we were on, I thought they were really good. They reminded me of Cameo live, except they were'nt as "hard". And not as rock either. But they were cool. Second time I saw them was around 2001 at The House Of Blues. It was even more watered down. Don't get me wrong, it was very professional. I like most of their material. But live, it was almost to "smooth". Very polished, tight band. Which is how u wanna be live, BUT I do like to have some "edge" going down to let the folks there know that u know how to bring it.

I heard that Slapbak has another band out of Slapbak that is more raw/rock with the guitars out front. I forget the band's name, however they speak about this band on their website. Also I hears Stevie Salas set in with Slapbak on some gigs, that sure couldn't have been watered down. Stevie can "bring-it"!

jw1914 said:

Yes he can. Don't own anything of Salas's solo stuff, just what he did with Bootsy. Saw Stevie play live though at The Viper Room. This had to be around 93, 94. He was promoting his new cd at that time. Haven't heard of this band within a band, but that sounds cool.

Saw Salas live a few years back, he was opening up for Joe Satriani. That was the first time I saw Salas live but I had listened his debut solo cd and I thought 'man this cat got his hands full tonight'. But Salas came out there and did his thing as if he had the top bill spot. Made me a believer for sure!

Have all of Slapbak's albums and saw them play with Weapon of Choice and the reunited Living Colour at the Key Club in Hollywood about two years ago. They were cool, but not as good as the other two bands.

Also, regarding Stevie Salas. He is a bad mofo. I have some of his solo stuff and his album with Bootsy and Buddy Miles (Third Eye) is one of my favorite albums of the past 20 years. I also have his album with Nickelbak, which was a one-off album with Doug Wimbush and Bernard Fowler. I also saw that band at the Key Club around 7-8 years ago, met the band and got my copy of the CD signed by all of them. There were also a lot of celebrities at that show and I got to meet Charlie Watts and Keith Richards, who were there because Fowler has often sung backup for the Stones. What a cool night that was!

Peace,
Scott

HardcoreJollies said:

Sounds like that was one hell of a show!