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Anybody seen Dr. Funkenstein & the boys lately? I used to love seeing the P-Funk All Stars in concert, but ever since the late 90s, I was sorta like, "been there, done that", but... Now that Mr. Clinton is coming to Rotterdam (which is close to where I live), I decided to give it another go. And yes, of course it's going to be "Weeeee want the Funk!" and "We gonna turn! This mtha out!" again, but.... I'm just wondering.. Who has seen George & the boyz lately? What's it like anno 2016? I mean, I'll still go and it'll probably still go on for three hours and I'll still love it, but if anybody has some recent experiences... Please share! | |
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Still going hard as steel and still getting harder. Special treat on this run is the return of Amp Fiddler on keys. Band is tearing up Europe, please go and give us your rendition of the state of the P. |
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Finally! A reply!  Yeah, I'm going tonight. Amp Fiddler on keys, that sounds good. I wonder if they'll play a lot of new stuff. (I don't have Shake the Gate.) | |
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NorthC said: Finally! A reply! Yeah, I'm going tonight. Amp Fiddler on keys, that sounds good. I wonder if they'll play a lot of new stuff. (I don't have Shake the Gate.)Great. Do let us know how the gig goes down. They have been doing a medley of tunes from Shake The Gate about a third of the way into the set. It appears to be well received by most. You really should pick up the record. Very diverse offering. He has a new Parliament set to drop before year's end. |
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Saw them 2 summers ago at a pretty small club in Sayreville, NJ called Starland Ballroom. He (and they) killed it, as usual. Show was over 2 1/2 hours, and there was like (no bullshit) 5 or 6 opening bands. We had to leave before it ended simply because of the amount of opening groups, and our feet were killing us from standing for so long! But I'd say to not even bother having second thoughts about seeing Ol' George, and to definitely 100% go. Its totally worth it. He always surrounds himself with great players and the performances are always top-notch, even though George sometimes takes a back seat during the show. You'll love it. And I should also mention this was my second time seeing P-Funk, the first time back in 2006. I got way WAY more familiar with all of the P-Funk material since the first time, so seeing them again was that much better. [Edited 7/28/16 11:33am] Get in your mouse, and get out of here! | |
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His wife Carlon is periscoping the Rotterdam show right now and the crowd is out to lunch with lunchmeat. |
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Yeah, I noticed that, but I didn't know it was his wife. Just got back and thought I'd write down some first impressions. The band had lots of P Funk veterans like Blackbird McKnight and some new guys that I didn't know. Not a lot of surprises in the set list except Vanish In Our Sleep by two female singers. And indeed, some new stuff. George looked more normal than ever! At 75, he doesn't walk around in bed sheets anymore and he sat down a lot. I can't blame him, but I did miss the crazy costumes. Thankfully we had Sir Nose performing some acrobatics. All in all, nothing I hadn't seen before, but it was good to see that George is still going strong and I had a smile on my face most of the time.  | |
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NorthC said: Yeah, I noticed that, but I didn't know it was his wife. Just got back and thought I'd write down some first impressions. The band had lots of P Funk veterans like Blackbird McKnight and some new guys that I didn't know. Not a lot of surprises in the set list except Vanish In Our Sleep by two female singers. And indeed, some new stuff. George looked more normal than ever! At 75, he doesn't walk around in bed sheets anymore and he sat down a lot. I can't blame him, but I did miss the crazy costumes. Thankfully we had Sir Nose performing some acrobatics. All in all, nothing I hadn't seen before, but it was good to see that George is still going strong and I had a smile on my face most of the time. Nice to know you were "smiling on the funk". Michael Hampton appears to be on extended leave, having not been onstage with P-Funk for almost a couple of years now. Word is his other go to axeman Ricky Rouse went out with Kool & The Gang this time on a Keep Funk Alive tour that also features Bootsy and The Time. P-Nut has gone on dialysis and road days are done. For some reason Trey Lewd did not trek across pond this time. The group is very family oriented at this time. The girls who did Vanish are his grand daughters and a lot of the rappers his grand kids too. How did you receive the newer material? |
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Yeah, that's what I thought, that some of them were his grandchildren and when they were rapping, that's when I sort of lost interest, but the groove was still funky as hell. They closed the set with Red Hot Mama and some other hard rock number with one of the young guys (with pink and green dreadlocks, they must have figured they needed at least one person with a crazy haircut!) on the git-tar, proving that P-Funk can also rock harder than most rock bands. And when I got up and looked in the mirror this morning, the smile was still there, so they were doing something right. Yeah, it was good to have seen them again. | |
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P-Nut, was that the guy who always dressed like a monk? And Bootsy is also still touring? Hmm, might wanna catch him too, he still wears those crazy costumes! | |
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Robert "P-Nut" Johnson was one of two former lead vocalists with the original Bootsy's Rubber Band. The most old crusty looking cat onstage. Ironically, the other, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper made a few of the Europe dates, don't know if he was at Rotterdam. Bone is all over the new Parliament stuff too. The rock number done at the end is Dirty Queen done by grandson Tra'fael Lewis. He may actually be great grandson. It's from Shake The Gate. Bootsy dates can be sporadic. Hard to get a good consistent angle on when he goes out there. He's also working on a new album. |
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Dirty Queen, yeah I remember that. And since you seem to know your stuff, I did some online searching and found a 1 LP version of Shake the Gate called Verzion Excursion. Unfortunately, the site gave no track list. Do you know anything about that?
[Edited 7/29/16 7:06am] [Edited 7/29/16 7:07am] | |
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NorthC said: Dirty Queen, yeah I remember that. And since you seem to know your stuff, I did some online searching and found a 1 LP version of Shake the Gate called Verzion Excursion. Unfortunately, the site gave no track list. Do you know anything about that? [Edited 7/29/16 7:06am] [Edited 7/29/16 7:07am] Other than the Louie Vega mixes on Ain't That Funkin, version excursion is the only portion of the album to be released upon vinyl. I thought it was pretty good. It's basically a few of the album tracks with remixes not available on the original record. They also throw in an old Kendra Foster track. |
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