“Three hour show” the posters and ads announcing Parliament/Funkadelic boasted to whomever would listen, as if this was some kind of selling point.
I’m not one for long shows. Never have been, never will be. So imagine my surprise when I found myself screaming at the stage for more after the promised three hours had elapsed.
After walking into Melbourne’s Palace Theatre on Monday night (25 April, 2011) my companion and I perched ourselves and our drinks on one of the tables up the back as we curiously looked down the tunnel bounded by heads, shoulders and the venue’s balcony at the surfeit of musicians and dancers squashed onto the stage, but it wasn’t long before we had been shot by the bop gun and our proximity to the action had become inadequate.
An early appearance of ‘Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)’ in the set was more than we could take, so we had moved from the back to an island of like-minded folk infected by the groove. ‘Bop Gun’ and ‘Flash Light’ saw our island grow, but a majority of the crowd didn’t seem entirely sold. George Clinton had the solution. “You’re about to hear a P-Funk classic,” he announced as the band launched into ‘Tear The Roof Off The Sucka’ from their legendary 1975 album ‘Mothership Connection’.
The scene had been set. The only people not dancing were statues and even some of them were showing signs of the boogie. The band and audience had bridged the mothership connection and we were on a journey into the cosmic slop. Burdened only by the sweat on our brow, nothing could bring us down and when we were nearing nirvana, ‘Maggot Brain’ plugged us into the mystical void and we were one with the universe, one nation under a groove, free to roam civilisation and turn it into the chocolate city.
With nothing more than a bunch of supremely talented musicians on stage, George Clinton and co. managed to transform a fairly ordinary venue full of funk skeptics into an ocean of boogie. They might not have the spectacular props of their tours from the 70s, or even many of the musicians from that era, but do they have the funk? Damn straight they do.
So next time you’re feeling uptight, just remember, “in these uptight times, hardcore funkateers deploy the bop gun, the unleasher of positive light. The bop gun can do you no harm, it frees your mind so your behind can follow.”
We’re all one nation under a groove.
The set list for George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic was:
Funk jam
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