Photographs by kind permission of Jayne Drooger / Tampa Bay Music News
Back in 1978, when this question was first posed by George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and Junie Morrison, it was not really up for debate with bands such as Funkadelic and Graham Central Station, but there weren’t a lot of bands covering all that ground… yet. Now we have many, such as The Main Squeeze, The Fritz, and Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, but there is nobody hitting it harder in both directions these days than Dumpstaphunk. Every night they kick so much ass there are no names left to take.
They did it again last Sunday, November 24, at Crowbar in Ybor City, Tampa, during their Fall Tour. The show was presented by Brokenmold Entertainment, with St. Petersburg jamtronic stars Future Vintage opening.
This was the third outing for Future Vintage (3.0) with new drummer Tucker Sody (their Suwannee Hulaween “debut” was a smash), and they got a great response and kept the crowd dancing on an early Sunday evening. They were showing off some new music, including opener “Rarefied.” Sody and bassist Trevor McDannel were in total lockstep, providing the dance floor for Matt Giancola’s keyboards and synths. “Coupe DeVille” was great, and the new “4th Quarter Magic” sparkled.
Then it was, of course, TIME TO PUT IT IN THE DUMPSTA!
The New Orleans quintet plus two horns jammed immediately into Parliament with a medley that began “Up For the Down Stroke” and ended with “Flashlight,” “When You’re Hot” stuck in between. The band’s vocals always energize the crowd, with Ivan Neville, Tony Hall, and Nick Daniels in fine form, and they were joined this night by Alex Wasily, trombone, and trumpeter Ryan Nyther on vocal chorus as well.
Hall began on bass along with Daniels, one nasty combination. The vocals really rang out on “Dancing to the Truth.” And it is appropriate here to shout out the sound engineers. Sometimes it gets too loud at Crowbar, but this night everything was dialed in to perfection. BRAVO!
There was a wicked clavinet intro to “Gasman,” and Ivan followed that up with a badass solo as well, as they sang, “We call it funk!” Ivan, from behind his Hammond B3 and bank of keyboards, sang a tune — “Business as Usual”? — before they launched into the Mariana Trench of funk: “I Wish You Would,” and a great long version at that. Somewhere along the line, Hall switched to guitar and eventually back to bass.
“Let’s Get At It” was superb, followed by a great drum solo by Deven Trusclair and then solos from Wasily and Nyther during “Dumpstametal.” The horns really helped “Street parade” take us to the Crescent City, especially when the two of them paraded through the crowd and then back to the stage.
Ian Neville on guitar had a big presence all night, but he really kicked it after Ivan hit those telltale clavinet notes that announced “Right Place, Wrong Time,” with Hall on vocal. Encore? Of course.
And let’s say this: Sunday night in Tampa, last show before Thanksgiving, and the Dumpstaphunk boys put everything they had into that set, and they were smiling the whole damn time as much as we were.
This is how you do it!
No audio from this show, but here is the CHeeSeHeaD PRoDuCTioNS audio of the show the night before at The Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton: