The Legends Of Funk in Houston, Tx!!

The Arena Theater has it’s own history in Houston, when it was called the Summit theater, and every major musical group has played in that theater at some time or another. The Arena theater has been renovated and includes a rotating stage and every seat is a good seat.

Now before we get into the review, there are some mandatory things you need to know when attending an old school concert:

    1.  Be on time! Yes they actually start on time (because of the 11:00pm rule). Cp time only works on today’s groups, (that’s why, when you pay $55 dollars or more to see lil’ Wayne he’s only on stage for 10 minutes, it takes time to get his entourage on and off the stage, u kno what I’m sayin?)

    2.  Know your old school songs! Just do not roll up in there talking about “that my jam” and don’t know the name of the song.

    3.  Make sure you know the lyrics to the songs! So when you sing along you’ll be right along with everyone else. Don’t be going “Slide da da da slide”… It’s “slide baby baby slide”!

    4.  Now, if you are able to wear old school clothes – wear them. But we all know some of us has picked up a lot of weight over the years, so those bell-bottoms and platform shoes do not fit like they used to. Even the groups aren’t wearing that stuff anymore.

    5.  Stand! You must stand at an old school concert. There is no sitting down. If you sit down, you’re showing your age and everybody in there is about your age. So wear comfortable shoes or just take them off, but you must stand from beginning to end.

The Legends of Funk tour consisted of The Barkays, The Ohio Players, The Slave Funk Band, and ConFunkshun, and a Master of Ceremonies. This Concert was off the funkin’ chain! The groups were rotating: first Slave…then The Barkays…then Confunkshun…then The Ohio Players, and each group would do three or four songs, and rotate.

The Slave Funk band started the night off with the jam “Watching You”, “Just A Touch Of Love”, & “Stone Jam”. Then The Barkays came on and the song –“Holy Ghost” was in the house, and then The Ohio Players came out and just re-funkified “Fire and Love Rollercoaster”. Confunkshun came out and started with “Ffun, Ffun Ffun”, and right before they slowed things down with the all time slow jam “Love Train”, they did a medley of other jams which included Maze’s “Joy and Pain,” & George Clintons “Atomic Dog”. Confunkshun had everyone on there feet singing, “Love Train”!

Slave came back for their last set and the bass line for “Slide” resonated throughout the arena. Everyone was sliding and Drac guitarist for Slave took no prisoners on the classic Danny Webster solo. Then from there they eased into the song “Stellar Funk”.

The show ended with The Barkays and with one of it’s members wearing a snake around his neck and I think the snake was a little agitated from the lights and noise, ’cause at one point, handlers had to unwrap it from his arm then several audience members were doing the dance called ‘the snake’ (worm or whatever you want to call it).

Overall, this was a four-hour nonstop concert and if it comes to your town do not hesitate to go see them! Make sure you follow the mandatory rules above. On a sad note, I was disappointed that there weren’t any t-shirts available to purchase. To let people know I was and still am a funkateer in all respect to the funk. Outside of that it was funkin’ off the chain, and I really enjoyed myself!
 
I hope to do more reviews from the Arena Theatre.