If you’ve never seen a George Clinton Parliament/Funkadelic concert live, your final chance to do so in St. Louis could be nearing.
Clinton said his final tour would be in 2018, but he is back on the road in 2022 – vowing that this time is the last time.
At 81, Clinton is not the on-stage force he was when younger. Yet, he remains very much in charge. It is still his funk, his sound, and his brilliance that made Parliament/Funkadelic one of Black America’s iconic concert bands.
Over the years, Clinton’s audiences have become more diverse. But the music is about Blackness, its trials, tribulations, a triumph.
The chilling tale of a mom who turns to prostitution to support her children in 1973’s “Cosmic Slop,” is a cautionary work for those living in underserved communities.
“Chocolate City,” released in 1975, is a salute to Washington, D.C. and other major American cities that elected Black mayors. It also alerts white America that Black Americans were making progress economically and socially.
“Oh, can’t you feel my breath? All up and down your neck.”
The release of “Mothership Connection” in 1976 launched a new era in the band’s history. What began as a barbershop quartet in the late 1950s made a transformation, and the keyword was funk. Songs were laced with extraterrestrial play-on-words and wicked guitar solos.
Clinton did not shy away from lengthier tracks, which cost him some radio exposure. “Maggot Brain,” “One Nation Under a Groove,” Knee Deep,” “Who Says a Fund Band Can’t Play Rock?,” sometimes reached 10 minutes.
It didn’t matter. The concerts sold out. People waited in line at Regal Sports in St. Louis and other St. Louis ticket outlets the day tickets went on sale.
On the current tour, Clinton is still with some “old heads” that have been with him since the delightfully delirious 1970s. Remember when “The Mothership” would land on stage and band members performed in clothing ranging from zoot suits to diapers?
Clip Payne, keyboardist and vocalist, joined the band in 1978 and is touring this summer.
“This band is sometimes as sweet as The Beatles, sometimes as sloppy as the [Rolling] Stones, sometimes as radical as [David] Bowie,” Payne told London-based Uncut before a recent show at the Kentish Town Forum.
“It has its metal thing – but it’s ghetto metal. It’s the people’s band. George makes sure that his audience is completely served. His audience isn’t usually the people you’d look at. They’re not at Ticketmaster, at all. They’re Funkateers, they’re Maggots. That’s where it’s at.”
Other Parliament mainstays headed to St. Louis include Michael Hampton, a gifted guitar player who was known as Kidd Funkadelic when he joined the band at 17 in 1975, saxophonist Greg Thomas and sax player Greg Boyer.
If you doubt that Clinton and company can still bring it, this is what The Guardian has to say about the current show.
“You could never accuse the current incarnation of Parliament-Funkadelic of not compensating. The band is still as gleefully overstaffed as at their 1970s height – at points there are eight vocalists performing at once – and Clinton presides over a kind of barely-controlled chaos: musicians wander on and off stage, swapping instruments and roles,” states a review.
“At one point, a singer reappears both wielding a guitar and stripped to his underpants. They sound fantastic, fusing together what are effectively Parliament-Funkadelic’s greatest hits – “Up for the Down Stroke,” “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Flashlight” – into sprawling medleys that devolve into lengthy jams.”
Maybe, this is Clinton’s real goodbye to St. louis. Maybe, it is not. I wouldn’t take a chance and miss this one.
George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic will perform at 5 p.m. Sunday, July 10, 2022, on The Lot at The Big Top, 3401 Washington Ave., St. Louis.
Tickets can be purchased at www.metrotix.com, and are $100 VIP, $90 premium, $50 reserved, and $25/$30 for general admission.
