Tuesday, May 22, 2007

George funked up Noda


I almost made a huge mistake this weekend.

I was thinking about skipping the George Clinton show at the Neighborhood Theatre on Sunday. I’ve seen him three times. The first was memorable, but the other two were forgettable. He came out for a hot five minutes, mumbled into the mike “To the windows, to the wall...” and bounced.

But I wanted to support promoter Dana McKelvey’s return to the music scene. And my girl had never seen Clinton before.

Thankfully, Clinton and the fans at the Nabe gave my girl a show to remember. Parliament performed for more than three hours, and Clinton stayed on stage for about two. Clinton sang a few lines, scatted a few, did hand dancing, freaked a couple of girls on stage, and then repeated.

Parliament was an odd collection of musicians and singers. There was a trumpet player wide enough to be an offensive lineman, a shirtless guy with abs that would make a six-pack jealous who wore feather pants and a big top hat (think Andre 3000), and singer Belita Woods -- who sounded as if she's smoked one too many cigarettes. There was also a full-grown man wearing a towel fastened around his waist like it was a diaper. Yuck.

They performed all of the hits, such as “Flashlight” and “Atomic Dog.” My favorite was Woods singing “Sentimental Journey.” Her voice is so raggedy, and she took fans to that other world where only Clinton, Parliament and his fans can visit.

The best part of the night was when Clifton Homesley of Mooresville bolted onstage and started singing "ga ga goo ga...ga ga goo ga...ga ga goo ga ga" along with the band. I thought Homesley was part of the band because members came onstage and went off all night.

A bouncer ran Homesley off the stage. He joined his friends, beaming. He said he was a Parliament fan from way back. Now, he can say he sang with George Clinton.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Tonya, where were you Saturday night at the Neighborhood Theater? There were 3 black people there for the Robert Earl Keene show, thought you would come out too. Show not black enough for you to review? Too many white people there?

Anonymous said...

Why nt change the title to something accurate :Black Events Of Interest To Blacks

Anonymous said...

what (k)ind of person counts the number blac(k) people at a Robert (K)eene concert??

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that last comment. The number of racist comments in response to Tonya's blog is mind boggling in the year 2007. I'm white and I was at the p-funk show with a number of people of all races, creeds, nationalities and sexual orientations. I've been to a Keen show and he is great but come to a p-funk show if you want to understand the real society that we live in--and it is one nation under a groove.