Tribe of Millions & Mandrill

At the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, NYC - 7/31/98

 




THE FUNKIEST FRIDAY OF THE SUMMER!!!!



Tribe of Millions took to the stage at 7:35pm. The members of the group are Malo Adams (guitar, vocals), Lee Broadaye (bass, vocals), and Greg Seay (drums, vocals). I met Lee and Greg at the George Clinton birthday bash on July 22, 1998 (at the Lion's Den)....they were very appreciative of my review of their show at Tramps (in Manhattan NYC) on May 10, 1997, when they opened for Bernie Worrell & The WOO Warriors. Anyway, Tribe of Millions funked up Brooklyn seriously with some phat ass tracks, like the pop-rock favorite "Shine", a rocking version of Funkadelic's psychedelic jam "I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody's Got a Thing", and the liquid-funky tale of "Stanley Jenkins" (with a kick-ass gospel jam at the end of the song). The funky tribe didn't perform a lot of stuff from their debut live album, Puddin' Head's Live Can of Whup Azz (PHLCOWA)", which was kind of a letdown--but the show was still funky, or as Malo put it, "This is the liquid show, y'all!" By the way, find a way to put up the PHLCOWA album, the shit is slammin'....funkier than a horse's ass!!!!


The tribe song set listing INCLUDED:

 

The Tribe's liquid show finished at 8:20pm.



Now that everyone was liquified (some were even evaporated), it was a good 40 minutes before the majestic legends of Afro-Latin funk, Mandrill, took to the stage. Before that, I signed their mailing list and bought a Tribe of Millions T-shirt, in support of my funky Minneapolis brothers of The Tribe!



At 9:00pm, Mandrill came to the stage and Louis Wilson (the bandleader) danced close to the audience to rile everyone up! All of the Wilson Bros. were there....Louis, The Doctor (Ric), Carlos, and Wolf (Wilfredo)! Long-time drummer Neftali Santiago was also there!! Mandrill pumped out the best hits from their first five albums.......it was a funk party!!! And everyone was HIGH, off of the funky tune "Ape is High"! "Cohelo" showcased Carlos's mighty flute--and it was so heavenly! "House of Wood" was nice and "Mango Meat" was definitely one of the high points of the show! I don't remember The Drill playing "Children of the Sun" live......it was a welcome treat! "Polk Street Carnival" sounded good on album, but it sounded ten times better at the show.....BRAVO to the band!! "Hang Loose" was scorching-hot with a black guitarist that can play like no other guitarist could.....what fierceness!!! DAY-UM!!! A rapper kicked some verbage over two of Mandrill's songs, "Children of the Sun" and "Fencewalk". The Drill was slammin' with "Git It All" before they left the stage at 10:07pm....but they returned three minutes later for an encore performance of "Fencewalk" (some funky shit!)......there was a second encore performance at 10:17pm, where the band played my ALL-TIME FAVORITE, the shake-your-moneymaker groove of "Rollin' On"....DAMN! The crowd was on fire......BROOKLYN WAS SHAKING LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE OF MAGNITUDE 8.0!!!! And when they went into the gospel-funk rhythm section of the song, THAT WAS IT......people nearly fainted! We were rockin' in the church of Brooklyn's Prospect Park and I wanted to shout, "Hallelujah!!!!" The gospel funk ended at 10:30pm and that was it! Mandrill (or The Drill) played 90 minutes of heavy-hitting, funk-so-hard-that-your-great-great-grandchildren-will-feel-it music!!


The Drill song set listing:

·         Mandrill

·         Children of the Sun

·         Mango Meat

·         Ape is High

·         Cohelo

·         House of Wood

·         Polk Street Carnival

·         Hang Loose

·         Git It All

·         Fencewalk (first encore performance)

·         Rollin' On (second encore performance)



The Wilson Brothers were so glad to be performing in Brooklyn....they haven't performed there in 20 years! As Louis put it, "We're home, Brooklyn!"



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