I hope Chaka doesn't descend again, now on to the review...



There had to be THOUSANDS of people at Wingate Field, Brooklyn, NY last night...most to see Chaka, but a vast majority (and me in that crowd) to see THE BROTHERS JOHNSON. I have to tell you all that I have not seen these guys perform together since the early 80's 'Light Up the Night' album, so this was a real treat. They started with 'Aint We Funkin now'...where Brother 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson showed that he can still beat the heck out of a bass guitar...then on to Get the Funk Outta My Face (clearly folk in Brooklyn were not saying FUNK...lol...) Strawberry Letter 23, where at least they did shout out Shuggie Otis ...they also performed a tribute to SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE...Louis Johnson stated that this was the best Funk-Rock and SOul group in the History of music and how heavy of an influence they were on his playing style...he kicked 'Family Affair' in the behind, a good rendition performed. They moved on and Louis paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix as well...playing the Star Spangled Banner...the crowd LOVED it! From there, they moved into their closing tune, STOMP...which everyone in thea field didi when the song started...this was a NY favorite as I remember from back in the day of its release...There were other songs they played and Im forgetting them at this moment, Ill holler back...
The Brothers came to jam and they did...Louis, I notice is very out spoken and and brought light to the fact that they did not get a sound check and kept asking duringthe performance, 'Can ya'll here us out there?!' He noted that the sound system is always turned up higher for the main performer of a concert, which was not them, but that he loved Chaka but they should have been allowed to really warm the crowd up with the sound system being louder...he knew he was rubbing the wrong elbows and announced ''ish' I dont give a damn, I tell the truth and im out spoken that way!'...The Councilman Marty Goldman came on after they got off and stated 'whether you're a great act or not, I will not condone curing or vulgarity of any sort on this stage or concerts in this park! We have children here!'...That was received with mixed reaction, but I hope it does not stop the Brothers Johnson from coming back...they were excellent.

AND THEN THE BAD NEWS: CHAKA. This was the first time I walked out a Chaka performance.
Let me state it CLEARLY. Chaka was ZOOTED, GLAZED and FLOATING ON CLOUD 9.
First she was 1 hour and a half LATE (sobering up Chaka?) Then when she hit the stage, the first song being 'Whatcha Gonna Do For Me?' She mumbled through the whole set. There were monitors around the field and ther were close-ups on her face. Sweating uncontrollably, glazed eyes (could barely keep them open) stumbling cross the stage, screaming out only the high parts of the song, the background singers took most of her leads, she could barely hold the mic, when ever the background singers danced she danced instead of singing the verse!....There was a point where after the first song, she left the stage for 10 minutes, music time, not for acostume change, but to come back out and dance again withthe back gorund singers. He backup was TIGHT, however. They cover her WELL. Apparently they must have repetitive experience with this situation, and maybe Chaka has worked it out with them to do that, in case of emergency, There was no musical director, like when I saw her last year, and at the Apollo. After 3 songs, I left. I was embarassed for Chaka and felt that she should, after all these years of professing sobriety, try to maintain that. She was a HOT MESS last night, and someone should tell her. Another thing, she appeared to be busting out of her clothes. Those were not carefullly planned either. Im upset because I am a 'CHAKALAHOLIC' from 'day then', but I dont know about 'day now'. Im tired of watching these folk kill themselves.

Enough Chaka. Damn.

Thank you for posting that. That's a damn shame about Chaka. As much as I love her, she needs to realize that it's not 1978 anymore. I hope she gets it together. Glad to hear Louis and George patched up their differences and are playing together again. Funny to hear that the "born again" Louis Johnson was cursing at the mic.

Wow, I'm glad I didn't go out there.

Wasn't is scheduled for Monday, August 15th?

Chaka came to Rochester in June with Will Downing opening, it was part of the Jazz Fest. here. I didn't go but some friends of mine went & said that they didn't enjoy Chaka at all. They didn't say that she was a hot mess but they said instead of singing she was practically screaming all of her notes. when she was singing at all. When the show was over they told me that no one sat around waiting for an encore, everbody made a dash for the door.

eldog98 said:

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It appears that she may be losing her voice and the drugs and drinking are only making the situation worst. It is time for this sister to get into a rehab.

Wingate Field .....where is this?

Prospect Park?????

Eldog,thanks for this review.I saw The Brothers Johnson in concert a few years ago,and they were fantastic! They opened their show with a new song called "Grooveless",then they launched into all their old jams...."I'll Be Good To You","Land Of Ladies","Ain't We Funkin Now","Get The Funk Out Ma Face",etc.They even covered Cameo's "Word Up" and a few Sly and The Family Stone songs.During "Strawberry Letter #23",Louis played the guitar solo twice,saying "I want y'all to see that this is not a recording,it's the real thing".Near the end of the show,they covered Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (as you know,George plays the memorable bassline on the studio version of that song).I was in funk heaven,lol.Last year,they released a Live CD/DVD set that includes a 2003 performance at an outdoor music festival.

As for Chaka I hope she gets it together.I saw her in 2001 with Rufus,and she was in fine form.

What a shame for Chaka. I keep hearing stories like this including one New Year's Eve performance years ago where she couldn't remember the words to any of the songs. Again, if she worked in an office, she'd be fired for showing up late, performing her duties incompetently and being high. But entertainers get a pass and continue to do the same things until they either OD or get arrested.

eldog98 said:

Agree totally with your review..... she was terrible... That was the
worst concert i had been to at Wingate.... THE O'JAYs tore it up.. they
were fantastic as well as Pebo and Regina...

Aww man, it's good to see The Brothers working it out, i heard they were beefing for a long while. i might be wrong, but isn't Louis the bass player?

Kind of threw me off when i read he played the star mangled banner, unless this was performed on bass!! Now that would've been wicked!

My Mother was there, but I didn't get a review from her yet. But hopefully she had a better time than eldog98 did.

DavidEye said:

The last time I saw Ms. Khan was in 2001 as well, and she was clean as a whistle! She was performing at a charity tea dance for AIDS in South Beach, I can't remember it 100% at this very moment, but I think it was in the old Glam Slam space that had closed years before at 12th & Washington (which is a long story in itself because SoBe locals believe that place is cursed and NO nightclub survives in that space for long)...I actually had drinks with her post show as we have 2 friends in common (a really cool old skool grandma type former publicist, and the other is a Miami session singer), and she was sharp as a tack. She even dispensed friendly motherly advice to me as a fellow American expatriate, as she used to live in Europe for a long time (basically along the lines of, "...are you speaking the languages, dear? Be a good girl while you're over there, and make sure you speak the languages properly so you will be taken seriously...")... I remember her being multi-lingual with the ability prattle off in 50,000 languages at any given moment (!), even correcting my grammatical errors in conversational German (cause she used to live here eons ago)...she was sooo straight, that even though I was a grown assed woman, her level of seriousness (reminiscent of what could be your favorite grade school teacher or super fun but "stay in your place!" auntie) totally brought out the "yes m'ams" and "no m'ams" in me, LOL! I wonder what happened from that time until now that brought on the demons of old.....?

Louis is "Thunder Thumbs"..George is "Lightin' Licks".

wonder505 said:

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Dude she is on drugs. She talks about it a little bit in her book and it sounds like she was okay up and until a year or so. No one said anything bad about her at the Essence festival in 2004.