I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 19, 2023] Parliament-Funkadelic featuring George Clinton

I’ve had Parliament’s Greatest Hits since like 1990.  I have a couple Funkadelic albums.  I am in no way a huge fan, but I’ve always liked them and I’ve always thought that George Clinton was a pretty great guy.  I realize 100% that the P-Funk heyday was literally decades ago.  And of course I knew that any P-Funk concert in 2023 was going to be an imitation of what the band(s) got up to back in the day.

But since George was going to be there and his name was on the marquee, I assumed that this show would be a 21st century update to the classic P-Funk show.  And with the technology (and costumery) available, it seemed like this could be an outrageous spectacle.

And it was not.

Well, it was a spectacle.  There were some forty people on stage over the course of the night.  Not even all of them were musicians.  There were people ringing in the stage (one woman had her purse with her) who I’m guessing were VIPs or who won a contest or something.  When the band first came out there were four horn players, two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a keyboardist, a disembodied voice (eventually I located him), four backing vocalists and George himself.

These musicians came and went throughout the show, sometimes being replaced by others.  And who even knew what was going on in the back where people were unseeable.

George Clinton is 82 and I didn’t expect him to do a lot.  He sat in a chair for most of the show and was a perfect hype man for this collective.  But even his look was really subdued.  He had on a plaid outfit with shoulder wings and a sequined hat.  No rainbow dreads or feathers or anything.  It was kind of a let down.

I don’t know how long anyone on stage has played with him–some performers were quite old, while others were clearly in their twenties.  One of the members came out after a few songs wearing steampunk wings and that was pretty neat.  One of the women changed outfits a lot but mostly wore super high platform shoes with stiletto heels.

Musically I knew that it was going to be a mashup of Parliament and Funkadelic songs.  But I did not expect to not know most of the songs.  I realize that P-Funk has a million records out.  But who would have guessed that the first two songs were ones I didn’t know.  Not “Can You Get to That.”  Not ” Free Your Mind”(In fact, nothing from Maggot Brain or Free Your Mind).

Sure, I should have known “Cosmic Slop,” but I didn’t.  I DID know the “I am the Slime” riff from Frank Zappa (and wondered briefly if Frank Zappa had covered it).  Then they followed this with three songs from the 2014 Funkadelic album.   And who even knew they put out an album in 2014?

Most of these songs seemed to be a verse and chorus and a lot of jamming.  One setlist lists all of the songs as medleys which is pretty accurate.  I mean, “Get Low” may have only had the chorus sung (at which time George did in fact get pretty low–certainly lower than I could have gotten).

The first time I really Knew a song was when a very tall young singer came out and absolutely blew me away with their voice and moves as they got us all to sing “Flash Light.”  The Parliament song segued into a series of Funkadelic choruses and eventually wound up with a series of frankly endless solos.

First guitar, then trombone, then bass, then keyboard, then saxophone.

By this time I was exhausted.  I had actually considered leaving after about thirty minutes.  I was pretty exhausted from standing and I felt like I had seen everything I was going to.  Plus, i didn’t know much of anything that they played.  And I was tired of being told to clap and wave my hands.

At least the solos resolved in P Funk Wants to Get Funked Up.

I was very, very. very surprised when they started playing a House of Pain cover.  “Jump Around” seemed like an unlikely choice for PFunk, especially when two or three of the singers did in fact sing all the verses (and the woman in the platforms jumped around a lot).  This segued into a medley of jamming and repeating choruses and singing lines that ended with The Roof is on Fire, which I also wondered if it was their song (it isn’t).

I was happy that they played “Give Up the Funk.”  And they played some of “atomic Dog,” but I didn’t think they played very much of the actual song.  They didn’t play “Up for the Down Stroke.”  They didn’t even do a lot of choruses to lesser known Parliament songs.

It was all kind of weird and vaguely disappointing.

I had pretty high expectations for a visually exciting show full of hit after hit that people could sing along with.   But it was not visually exciting at all–just a static backdrop and occasionally a moving image on the screen.  The band wasn’t dressed up in crazy 70s costumes–just the few younger folks who were fun to watch.  And a lot of slow jamming songs that I didn’t know.

I was also bummed that I was on horns side rather than the vocalists side since they seemed to be having far more fun over there.

So, yes, overall, I should have skipped this and gone to see the Fishbone headline show.  Although I did enjoy singing “Give Up the Funk.”

1. Funkentelechy € (Parliament cover) (with “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” ⊗)
2. Cosmic Slop © (Funkadelic cover) (with “I’m the Slime” by Frank Zappa)
3. Pole Power ♦ (Funkadelic cover)
4. Meow Meow ♦ (Funkadelic cover)
5. Get Low ♦ (Funkadelic cover)
6. One Nation Under a Groove ∇ (Funkadelic cover)
7. Flash Light € (Parliament cover)
8. (Not Just) Knee Deep ≅ (Funkadelic cover)
   
9. Freak of the Week ≅ (Funkadelic cover)
10. Red Hot Mama ∑ (Funkadelic cover)
11. P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up) ψ (Parliament cover) (With multiple solos) 
12. Jump Around (House of Pain cover)
13. Get Off Your Ass and Jam ⊗ / I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody’s Got a Thing £  / Get Low ♦ / Dirty Queen ♦ /  The Roof is on Fire (Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three cover)
14. Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) ψ (Parliament cover)
15. Atomic Dog ∏ (George Clinton song)

FUNKADELIC
£ Funkadelic (1970)
© Cosmic Slop (1973)
∑ Standing on the Verge of Getting It On (1974)
⊗ Let’s Take It to the Stage (1975)
∇ One Nation Under a Groove
≅ Uncle Jam Wants You (1979)
♦ First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate (2014)

PARLIAMENT:

ψ Mothership Connection (1975)
€ Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977)

P-FUNK COLLECTIVE

∏ Computer Games (1982)