What would the universe look like if DJ Lollipop Man had never taken to the airwaves from the Mothership? Think about it: if not for the Long-Haired Sucker, we’d know nothing of Starchild, the Mothership Connection, or the Thumpasorous. We’d never have learned the history of Dr. Funkenstein and Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk (the Cro-Nasal); of Funkentelechy’s triumph over the Placebo Syndrome; of the Bop Gun. George Clinton would just be the forgotten name of the fourth vice president of the United States, and none of us would know TAPOAFOM (IYKYK).
Boy, I’m glad I don’t live in that universe. “Why?” you ask? For starters, I don’t know what my fellow Greater Philadelphians would have done on Friday, December 27th. Without P-Funk, Kidd Funkadelic would just be Mike Hampton, Clip Payne would just be Mike Payne, and Lawrence “Law” Worrell…well, he’d probably still be Law Worrell. (I know what you’re thinking, and no, he’s not familial-ly related to Bernie.) But there would be no 420 Funk Mob to do it to us in our earholes, and that would be a sad universe, indeed.
The extended P-Funk family band brought a deep bench of funkadelic talent to Bensalem’s Broken Goblet, where the crowd happily worshipped at the feet of living legends: Mike “Kidd Funkadelic” Hampton (guitar), Mike “Clip” Payne (drum machine, vocals), Lawrence “Law” Worrell (guitar, vocals), Greg Fitz (keyboards), Darian Cunning (guitar – a white lefty-strung-righty Strat, to be precise), Henry Ott (guitar), Mark Dann (bass), Richie “Shakin’” Nagan (percussion), and Robert “Chicken” Burke (drums).
The Funkitorium opened the night with eight players at the height of their powers, bringing a West Philly spin on the tight funk. (Think: Tower of Power, mid-period James Brown.) Frontman Arthur Thomas took the band and crowd through their paces, with a rhythm section you could set your watch to. The group is no stranger to supporting exceptional talent, having previously supported Devon Gilfillian, and the crowd grooved to their music, both their originals and their tasty covers of go-go classic “Da’ Butt,” Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers’ “Bustin’ Loose,” and Prince’s “Kiss.”
When 420 Funk Mob took the stage, the funk went deep immediately as they presented a set that lived at the intersection of James Brown Street and Sun Ra Avenue. The group (mostly) played (relatively) deep cuts, to the delight of the hometown-ish crowd – Hampton has a long affiliation with southeast Pennsylvania and south Jersey – opening with “I’ll Bet You,” from Funkadelic’s 1970 self-titled debut. As the set progressed, axe men Cunning and Ott expertly wielded their respective instruments, offering melodic lines that were as tight as they were loose, as pristine as they were cosmically sloppy. The set included some of the hits, including “Red Hot Mama” with a blistering lead from Hampton, along with covers of Sly Stone’s “If You Want Me to Stay” and Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love.”
Photo by Alisa Shargorodsky @earth_algorithm
But the pièce de résistance came as Cunning and Ott took their sweet ass time picking through the iconic chord progression of “Maggot Brain,” while Hampton bared his soul to us all, alternating quiet runs with loud ones, clean runs with filthy ones, low on the neck and high on the neck of his PRS (and even higher, courtesy of his Digitech Whammy pedal). To call the performance a scorcher undersells both the performance and also fire itself. (At some level, they’re one and the same.)
A wise man once said, “Everybody’s got a little light under the sun.” Fortunately for the good people of Greater Philadelphia, the sun was out in full fucking force on that cold Friday in December.
Videos by @CapnOfCrunch)
One Response
The 420 Funk Mob show at Broken Goblet was off the hook. The band was smokin. Wailing guitars all night long, each one with a way different style along with Kidd Funkadelic. I bought a copy of their new cd, ” The Emperor Has No Clones” I thought i had fun at the show. Cd hasn’t left my cd player. Burned it for my workout playlist.
Its the closest thing to a Funkadelic album you are ever. gonna hear.