I am not a huge GC & P-Funk fan. I think they are OK, but have always enjoyed them in smaller doses than full CD or concert length. However, I have always been somewhat curious to see him live as it is always supposed to be a great show. I was especially after his award winning* performance in Good Burger...I just didn't want to pay for it. I was also looking forward to checking out Club 504 - a new club in the Des Moines East Village area.
Club 504 |
We got to the venue about 15 minutes before the show was listed to start...but of course, the show didn't actually start for well over an hour after the listed start time (bars, you have no idea how much I hate that). Since we had plenty of time to stand around, it was time for stoner watch. Even though the place smelled heavily of pot, I was a little disappointed in the stoner turn out. I thought I saw the holy triumvirate of stonerdom for a second - white-guy dreads, crocheted rastafarian hat, and old army jacket...but I was disappointed when he emerged from the shadows. His hat was just black and not the traditional red, yellow, green, and black of a true pot head. Even worse, he didn't even have dreads, just long hair. In fact, I didn't see a single attendee with white-guy dreads. It was disappointing.
Since they weren't touring as the P-Funk All-Stars, I wondered if there might be fewer people on stage...but I was wrong, the stage was always crowded. It made Slipknot look like they have a reasonable number of members in their band. Seriously...check out this list of P-Funk members, many are gone or moved on but quite a few are still active in the band. I don't think the stage ever had fewer than 10 people and most times it was more like 15-20. One of the singers even grabbed a cordless mic and came out to sing from the audience section - not in a show off way, but a get out off the crowded stage kind of way.
Since he is old balls, I didn't figure that George would be doing as much as he used to...but he did even less than I expected. I don't even think he did the lead vocals on a single song. He started one song, but let someone else finish (or maybe it devolved into a 20 minute jam). Mostly, he howled now and then, told people to raise their hands, and shuffled around the stage shoving his microphone towards other members (in front of the trumpet, towards a backup singer, next to the bass amp, etc...). One nice thing was that George was no longer wearing his multi-colored dreadlocks (I am pretty sure they were fake for the past 15 years anyways), it actually made him look better and younger.
GC and P-Funk live 02/05/2011 |
All in all, it wasn't a horrible show. It had it's entertaining moments, it just wasn't the kind of show that was for me. I was not one of the people, bent over at the waist, hands in the air, eyes closed, and tears streaming...but there were several of those. Ryan was a little disappointed, he has seen P-Funk like 5 or 6 times and said this was the worst show he had seen. It is nice to be able to say that I have seen him in concert.
*Only in my mind
2 comments:
So you're saying that George is basically the Baba Oje of P-Funk now? Just needs a rocking chair.
I swear you love Good Burger more than anyone else on Earth.
Yes, that is exactly what I thought when he didn't sing much - Baba Oje. He also needs a big stick. But still I think Baba Oje rocked the camel's ass.
I do love Good Burger and I don't know why...but I mostly put that line in there for you. I knew you would hate it.
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