George Clinton
Neighborhood Theatre
Feb. 28, 2009

The Deal: The Godfather of Funk hits Charlotte for a three-hour tour of classic P-Funk and some newer hits.

The Good: If you wanted the funk, you were in the right place. Clinton hit the stage around 10:30 p.m. and the band kept going for roughly three hours. Sure, most of the stuff you’d expect was played — “Give Up the Funk,” “Somethin Stank and I Want Sum,” “Bounce 2 This,” and “Flashlight.” He also played the newer song “Hard as Steel” from TAPOAFOM.

Michael Hampton shredded the hell out of plenty of guitar riffs, showing why he’s been with the band since age 17. Garry Shider, aka “Starchild” or “Diaper Man,” also did his job as the musical director.

One of the talented female backup singers found time to roll around on skates in a bikini. She was more than eye candy though as she held her own in a duet with Clinton. Funny that when I did some research on her online, I found out she was “Peaches” on “Flavor of Love.”

Who else is gonna get 20 people on stage and make it sound fantastic?

The Bad: I won’t say she was bad — Kendra Foster got out there and warmed up the crowd for 30 minutes with a mixture of her own songs and some old Funkadelic. However, it was clear from all of the “We want the funk!” chants that people were there for Clinton and no one else would do… It helped that Foster was backed up by members of P-Funk though.

Let’s face it, George is getting old. That’s not a bad thing because he can still tear the roof off, but when I saw him the first few times, he never left the stage. This time around, he took a few breaks.

The Verdict: It may not be as consistent, or draining (the first time I saw him the show lasted for four hours), but he can still give the funk as good as he ever did.

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Rumors have it that they’re going to try and hold a 40th Anniversary concert for Woodstock this August.

There would be a concert in New York held on the same days as the original festival, and a second concert held in Germany.

Organizers are hoping to get some of the bands that played at the original show — The Grateful Dead, The Who and Santana among them…

Anniversaries were celebrated twice before — in 1994 and 1999. The 1999 concert ended with fires and riots.

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Each Friday we bring you 10-word reviews of 10 random CDs released in the last few months:

Jeff Kashiwa Back in the Day — For some reason it kinda reminds me of Kenny G.

Various Artists Confessions of a Shopaholic Soundtrack — Good way to get in touch with your feminine side.

Joe Rathbone Mad July — He reminds me of Mike Doughty without the witty lyrics.

Jonas Brothers Music from the 3D Concert Experience — Unfortunately, it looks like they’re gonna be around a while.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band — Indie buzz-sters’ debut combines elements of classic rock, modern rock.

Superdrag Industry Giants — Power-pop alt-rockers have kept some ’90s sound intact.

Ballas Hough Band BHB — More pop crap. Go back to “Dancing with the Stars.”

The International Noise Conspiracy The Cross of My Calling — Band pays a lot of homage to classic rock, poorly.

Ronnie Milsap Then Sings My Soul: 24 Favorite Hymns and Gospel Favorites —Country soul legend tackles numerous classic songs on two discs.

Bruce Robison His Greatest — Songwriter re-records a variety of his country hits, solo tunes.

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The recently reunited No Doubt has announced its summer tour dates, which includes a June 6 show at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte.

The opening act is Paramore with The Sounds, Janelle Monáe and Bedouin Soundclash on select dates.

Tour Club presales begin at 4 p.m. on Feb. 26. Tickets go on sale to the general public on March 7 at noon at livenation.com.

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When my friend told me she wanted to go to the Common Market for a girls night out I asked her if she was on crack.

“You’ve never been?” she asked.

“Yeah, in the afternoon to get lunch or stock up on my hippie snacks,” associating the Common Market with a cool convenience store-slash-deli… but as it turns out, it’s also a -slash bar — CM After Dark, if you will.

I walked into the Common Market at 10 p.m. on a weekend night to a DJ playing Boys II Men, a bartender serving wine, a cooler reading, “cold and cheap beer” and an entire cooler of Sparks (which excited me by the way).

Meanwhile, you can go and select your own beer out of the cooler from $2 Tecate to the rarest of imports, pay the cashier and sit down at the bar — Swig and drink it. It’s like the Willy Wonka Hop Factory — there’s even chocolate beer…

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were Oompa Loompas living behind the beer in the cooler keeping it stocked. And you can walk over the other cooler and get a latte for the morning.

The only thing they didn’t have is a beer I got to try while in Salt Lake City for Sundance… Polygamy Porter. Their motto is “Why have just one?”

When I say there were all kinds of people there, I mean people of all kinds. But that’s just the population of Plaza Midwood in general… As most P-M spots in the p.m., the Common Market has its regulars — and irregulars, such as my girls and I. Though a crowd, the Common Market wasn’t crowded this particular night, but I hear it gets that way on the weekends when bands come and occupy the little stage on the closed off patio.

And this past Saturday they had a presentation of the Vagina Monologues. Well, all our vaginas were singing on the vacant stage when DJ Tech Support put “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” on. We danced as though no one was watching — because we thought no one was as we had the patio to ourselves. We went all out and even utilized the shop vacuum on the stage as props for microphones and performed like we were Cyndi Lauper all jacked up on Mountain Dew. We then proceeded to turn the patio into Soul Train and broke out the old school dance moves — I think I even broke out the Carlton.

On the way out, the cashier shouted to us, “Bye dancing queens!”

We turned to her out of curiosity as to how she saw, or heard, about our makeshift karaoke concert. But before we could ask she just pointed to the monitor above the register pointing out on the patio. Busted… with embarrassment.

This Saturday, Feb. 28, The Lesser Pauls, Erika Blatnik and Flash of Alchemy will be on camera on the Common Market patio.

There’s also Common Market opening up in SouthEnd right across from Phat Burrito and there’s unsuspecting nightlife at the 24-hour Amelies French Bakery on 28th in NoDa…

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Sad news in the Charlotte music world today as I just received word that Monday Night All-stars singer Charles Hairston has passed away after a long battle with cancer.

The singer was in his early 60s and performed with every ounce of energy he had, every night he got on stage. I had the pleasure of speaking with him last September and his attitude was fantastic and you could easily see how much he loved to perform as much as he could.

Hairston would jump into the crowd to serenade the ladies and constantly wipe sweat off of his brow as he sang and danced for hours on end. There aren’t many performers around that could draw a large crowd on a Monday night, at midnight, for more than a decade.

The Monday Night All-stars have been performing at the Double Door Inn for 13 years. A memorial service and celebration of his life will be held on March 8 at the Neighborhood Theatre. I’m sure it will be a sad night at the Double Door tonight.

Heaven just got a fantastic peformer to join the all-star jam up in the sky…

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The above photo showed up at TMZ.com and is reportedly taken from the night of the incident involving Chris Brown and Rihanna.

Immediately after the photo was released, the Los Angeles Police Department all but confirmed its authenticity in a statement saying, “the Los Angeles Police Department Media Relations Section began receiving numerous inquiries about the release of a photograph associated with a domestic violence incident that occurred on February 8, 2009, involving entertainer Chris Brown. The photograph appeared on an entertainment website. The photograph has the appearance of one taken during an official Domestic Violence investigation.”

This case isn’t going away any time soon… hopefully Chris Brown will get more of a punishment than the usual celebrity slap-on-the-wrist of community service.

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Sure, the economy is in the crapper, so why not give celebrities even more money?

Personally, I think all celebrities and athletes should take a pay cut or donate money to the government for the bailout package. People are complaining about those on Capitol Hill spending billions of dollars, but no one’s complaining about athletes and celebrities making hundreds of millions. Why is it that celebrities always ask the middle-class to donate for charities?

Anyway, the latest crap-tacular idea is to put Nelly on a tv show called “Nelly’s Night in Vegas.” It will have the hip-hop artist performing and interacting with celebrities in a talk-show format, and he’ll even have a sidekick, houseband and possibly a game show element, as well.

Yeah…I just can’t wait for this ratings turd to hit the television.

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More details about the new music venue — the Fillmore Music Hall — coming to the N.C. Music Factory were released today.

The 20,000-square-foot-facility is scheduled to open in June and will have a capacity of 2,000 people, making it the largest club of its kind in the region.

The project, which is being built by Hendrick Construction, Inc., is being designed to look like the historic venue The Fillmore in San Francisco.

The music hall will feature exposed aged-wood ceilings, wood floors and state-of-the-art stage, sound and lighting systems. When complete, the roof will be raised to accommodate unique sound and lighting systems for various artists and performers.

The venue will also have red velvet draperies, chandeliers and custom lighting, artwork to accent the décor and VIP areas with granite countertops.

The Fillmore Music Hall will be the only venue in the Carolinas operated by Live Nation.

The original Fillmore opened in San Francisco in 1965. Since then, Fillmore venues have opened in New York, Miami, Detroit, Philadelphia and Denver.

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A quick glance over at the Web site for Amos’ Southend shows that TV on the Radio will be heading our way on June 11.

The band’s latest disc, Dear Science, made the top of Best of 2008 lists all over the place and they recently performed on Saturday Night Live.

Here’s a video for “Golden Age” from that album:

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