Customer Reviews

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic - Live at Montreux 2004

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What's Good: For the first time in a long time, Parliament/Funkadelic (a name used loosely in an era where many original members are few and far in between) offer a true, new live album from start to finish, not just rehashed material from the 70's with 90's material thrown in at the end a la "Live And Kickin'". The band starts off strong with the Parliament classic Bop Gun before moving onto a smokin' rendition of "Gamin' On Ya". Unfortunately, there aren't too many high points past this.

What's Bad: I haven't seen the band lineup myself, so I couldn't tell you who's present at this show, but I'm certain there's quite a few old members/mainstays who aren't on this one (where's Gary Shider? Just 2 horns?). Although the band starts out fairly strong, it doesn't hold up for too long. The groove is a little TOO laid back; "(Not Just) Knee Deep", a classic dancefloor romp, is a painfully slow snoozer here. "Up For The Downstroke" just sounds confused - did they not rehearse this one? Also, George Clinton himself can no longer sing worth a damn. My best guess is that his crack habit has long ruined his voice since the early 80's, and its at an all-time low here. I don't blame age; plenty of older folks can sing without sounding as tortured as this. GC, please lay off the pipe, get in shape and give your fans their money's worth. My biggest problem with P-Funk in their latest incarnation is the fusion of funk and hip-hop. I'm a bit of a purist, I love funk as well as rock/metal, jazz, fusion, prog, etc. To me, its insulting and irrelevant; just think what classics they could have put in the show (Standing on the Verge? One Nation Under a Groove?!) instead of the hip-hop numbers or Belita Woods' spotlight-stealing jazzy time-wasters. Zzzzzzzz.

Regardless, this is P-Funk live in 2004, the sound quality is good, the crowd is great, and any P-Funk is essentially better than none at all. My recommendation is to get this in conjunction with the hands-down best live funk mob output, recorded in 1983 - "P-Funk All-Stars Live At The Beverly Theatre in Hollywood".

If the system allowed it, I would give this 4 1/2 stars since it is not perfect but way up there (I more than "like it".) The flaw is that it is not perfectly recorded as others have pointed out. The good points are that it well represents where Clinton and his gang are in the 2000s and contains some high energy performances. Particularly noteworthy is Clinton's granddaughter(!), Sativa, rap-style performance on "Something Stank and I want some" and "Hard as Steel and Still Getting Harder". I have seen PFunk as recently as the beginning of this month (Dec. 2010) and this disc captures them well. It's not 1976 PFunk, but then what is? What it is is fun in its own right.

This is one of the best concert DVD's I've seen. It's like being at one of the better P-Funk shows, right in your living room. I highly recommend it.

I love George Clinton and the P-funk, but this albums sounds horrible. Clinton especially sounds way off key, his voice ripped to shreds, singing words off mic, out of rhythm. The album has bad balance. It sounds like there's a hole in the middle of the mix, with all these brittle parts surrounding the hole that don't add up to much. I've seen the P-funk several times, but this doesn't capture the feeling of those shows. Skip this one.

THIS CD AND SPECIALLY THE SETLIST ARE PRETTY COOL. THE NEW SONGS (SPECIALLY BOUNCE & SOMETHING' ) ARE SO COOL AND OF COURSE THE CLASSICS (ATOMIC, FLASHLIGHT). AWESOME STUFF. GEORGE CLINTON IS (40 YEARS LATER) STILL ON THE FUNKIN' TOP. GENIUS.