George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars
Date: July 10, 2007 With These Freaks and Musicians At their best, music festivals offer a chance to easily sample unknown bands, while providing a stage for proven favourites. This combination of the new and familiar came to the forefront on Day 7 of Bluesfest, when Todd Snider's unexpectedly delightful performance on the Blacksheep Stage made up for a headlining showcase from George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars that was somewhat lacking. Arriving early, I decided to settle in at the Blacksheep Stage, mainly because the rolling hill in front of the stage provides a comfortable locale for sitting. The first performer of the night, John Allaire, had already begun playing but I caught a large portion of his set. Allaire proved to be a comfortable yet solid performer, cracking a few jokes with the crowd and his band and playing catchy folk rock. With no other plan for the early evening, I stayed at the Blacksheep Stage, where Todd Snider played a solo set. Snider was probably the greatest surprise of the festival for me, as his songs and especially his presence were captivating. Musically, Snider offered a blend of folk and country, playing predominantly energetic songs on his acoustic guitar and harmonica. The wry humour and laissez-faire philosophy contained in his lyrics hinted at a personality that was more fully revealed in Snider's hilarious interaction with the crowd. Early on, Snider warned that he sometimes talks for eighteen minutes between songs. While he didn't quite reach that mark, a story relating his songs "Beer Run" and "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was longer than the two songs being discussed. With a laidback delivery and a comic timing reminiscent of the late Mitch Hedberg, Snider was as fun on his stories as he was with his music. His humour can be illustrated in his introduction to the car crash tale, "45 Miles," which he claimed to have written in the instant between realizing that he was going to crash and the actual impact. "You'll forgive me if it only has one chord," he noted, before adding, "I was pressed for time." When he was warning the crowd of his tendency to ramble, he also excused any opinionated songs that would follow by claiming, "I don't tell you these opinions because I think they're smarter; I tell them because they rhyme." In truth, though, Snider's observations and thoughts, including several songs touching on religion and politics, were perfectly reasonable, as well as amusing. Snider won over more of the audience as he went on, working a cycle of positive feelings. His songs made you take notice of him, before his interludes made you laugh; and then his affable personality made the songs even more relatable and funny. By the end of his set, there were broad smiles all around the crowd that had steadily gathered in front of the stage. Although I had not heard of Todd Snider before, I walked away with songs such as "Play a Train Song," "D.B. Cooper," "The Ballad of the Kingsmen," "Side Show Blues," "Statistician's Blues," and "Conservative Christian Right-Wing Republican Straight White American Males" stuck in my head, excited to discover that he would be playing another set the following night, in the indoor theatre. After that unexpected treat, I made my way to the main stage, where I got surprisingly close in anticipation of George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. While it was great to get so near to the action without camping out early, perhaps this should have been a sign that the crowd was not going to be as enthusiastic as I was expecting. The concert began with about a dozen players on stage, with a mix of veterans and newer members. Considering the amorphous line-up that Parliament and Funkadelic had over the course of several decades, there is an army of possible personnel to fill the ranks of the P-Funk All-Stars. Notables on this night included guitarists Garry Shider (the chain-smoking gentleman wearing an oversized diaper), DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, and Michael Hampton; and bassist Lige Curry. George Clinton himself was nowhere to be seen but the band jammed away with other vocalists, male and female. I was actually surprised that the group was only a dozen strong, with a single female vocalist and a single horn player; but they still had enough members to have one participant act the part of Sir Nose, periodically taking the stage in a full-length white fur coat and hat to heckle the band, only to be repeatedly chased away. At any rate, the masterful players kept the sound full and the energy strong, before Clinton finally appeared after nearly forty-five minutes, in a bright red wig and a shirt aptly emblazoned with the phrase "Old School Hustler." Clinton initially acted as more of a hype man for his band and his early singing takes demonstrated that his voice was in far from top form, with his barking words greatly assisted by other singers. With the set stretching close to two hours, Clinton definitely put in his time, even with his slow arrival; and he sounded notably better towards the end of the night, although he still was not carrying the load. Still, with or without George, the funk was strong all night, with the band laying down such songs as "Funkentelechy," "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)," "Free Your Mind (And Your Ass Will Follow)," "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)," "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)," "Up for the Down Stroke," and "Flash Light." The concert was not the over-the-top spectacle that the band would have provided in the 1970s, but the costumes and movement were visually entertaining; and Sir Nose eventually had his inevitable conversion to the funk, stripping off his coat and fake nose before dancing on the speaker stacks, encouraging the fans to reciprocate. I think that the greatest problem that I felt in the concert was the crowd, which was simply nowhere near as energetic as what I had been a part of for Manu Chao a few days earlier. Overall, as tight as the band was, the vibe was somewhat flat, making for an experience that was good but not great, falling short of my expectations. What could have been my first disappointing day at this year's Bluesfest, with the P-Funk All-Stars coming across as less of a party than I was expecting, ended up being a highlight, thanks to a thoroughly entertaining set from Todd Snider. <--Prev (Final Fantasy) | Next (Cat Power/Todd Snider)-->Return to Concert ListReturn to Main Page |