This past weekend was filled to the brim with concerts by major acts, the
likes of which are rarely seen in these parts. Friday night at
Thomspon-Boling Arena, rock legends Jimmy Page and Robert Plant took
the stage and proved that they still wield the “hammer of the gods.”
Saturday night at the Electric Ballroom, George Clinton and the P-Funk
All Stars proved that “There ain’t no party like a P-Funk party, cause
a P-Funk party don’t stop.”
When the stage lights came up Friday night, Robert Plant was already
spinning around with mic stand in hand. They launched into their set with
the vim and vigor of rockers half their age. Accompanying them for the
second half of the set were members of the Knoxville and Nashville symphony
orchestras and a band of musicians from Egypt. The Egyptian ensemble
accompanied them on songs from their recent release, No
Quarter.
One long-time Led Zeppelin fan who attended the show, UT doctoral student
Pat Hamilton, was impressed with their still-vital stage presence.
“They prove that these old musicians who get back together just get better
with age,” said Hamilton. “Their hair looked good and Plant hit all the
high notes perfectly.”
Page traded guitar licks with ex-Cure guitarist Porl Thompson, who played
the frenzied lead on the top crowd-pleaser “The Song Remains the Same.” In
honor of Thompson the band played the Cure tune “Lullaby.”
Page shined on the more bluesy leads such as “Since I’ve Been Loving You,”
but at times his guitar could have been louder. They finished their set
with a great version of “In the Evening” before returning for three
encores, “Yassah,” “Black Dog” and “Kashmir.”
Two songs notably missing from the show were “Stairway to Heaven” and
“Whole Lotta Love.”
Saturday at the Electric Ballroom, the P-Funk All-Stars started kicking it
at 8:30 p.m. and delivered the advertised “3 1/2 hours of unbridled funk
madness” in top form.
As they built the first groove for the evening, the wild characters of the
Parliament funhouse emerged from the wings. Amidst the mayhem: one
guitarist resplendent in a wedding dress, one singer in dreadlocks wearing
nothing but a diaper and sneakers and one dressed as a purple-clad funk
sheik. In front of it all appeared the man of the hour, George Clinton,
wearing a Mickey Mouse print shawl, his multi-colored braids twirling about
as he directed the audience’s attention toward various sections of his
band.
The P-Funk show is definitely a party. There were no less than a dozen and
a half people on stage throughout the concert. Band members appeared and
left, seemingly at random. Still, the beat never dropped and the groove
kept going. At one point, six guitars were cranking out the funk as Clinton
and the gang chanted along.
Standout selections included “We Got the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the
Sucker),” “Flashlight,” “Atomic Dog” and the massive final encore of “One
Nation Under a Groove.”
One high point of the show was a rap by a seemingly out-of-place
accountant-looking bald white guy. Identifying himself as Louis “Barlow”
Greene and making lots of puns about being Green Day, he rapped for about
ten minutes and proved you can’t judge funky by looking at its cover.
“His rap was right on time,” complimented concert-goer Ron Payne of South
Knoxville.
The only weak point of the show was a far-too-long guitar piece by a member
of the back-up band. It was obviously an “intermission filler.” But after
this lull, Clinton returned to the stage and tore it up for another hour
and a half.
Both the Zeppeliners and Clinton put on energetic shows and proved that
rock and rollers need not burn out, fade away nor pack it in. Knoxville was
treated to a weekend of some of the best in entertainment.
