Sunday night at Hartwood Acres you were in the wrong place if you weren’t primed to funk.
Turned out that a lot of folks were.
Bootsy’s Rubber Band, an offshoot of Parliament/Funkadelic and led by bassist William “Bootsy” Collins, did its thing in a show that started over an hour past the stated time of 7:30 p.m. Turns out Mr. Collins was caught in the massive traffic jam outside the park. But when it did get going, it really got going.
Much of the band originally came out in spacesuits and helmets, perhaps befitting of its origin, but then took no prisoners in a medley that had to have lasted about 20 minutes — during which Mr. Collins came out in a magenta outfit with matching top hat and sporting his bass with five-point stars in both the body and headstock.
The audience was up and rockin’ virtually from the first bar — “Ahh ... the Name is Bootsy, Baby!,” “Stretchin’ Out,” “Body Slam,” “What’s a Telephone Bill?,” with Mr. Collins laying down an impressive solo with effects on the last. Strong individual performances also were delivered by vocalist Zachary “Xzact” Adams, guitarist Keith Cheatham and trombonist Kyle Molitor, with former Prince drummer John Blackwell driving everything along.
During “I’d Rather Be With You,” the band broke into the chorus of Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and encouraged the audience to sing along, which it certainly did.
But in addition to the band’s own catalog, it also threw in some chestnuts from the P-Funk repertoire — “Mothership Connection (Star Child),” including an extended “Swing low, sweet chariot/Let me ride” at the end; the rollicking “Flash Light,” which I was surprised wasn’t extended more than it was; and the encore “One Nation Under a Groove,” which Mr. Collins began with the chant “It’s official/Family-approved/One nation/Under a Groove.”
Rick Nowlin: rnowlin@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3871.
First Published: August 3, 2015, 5:37 p.m.
