Dr. Klaw’s epic funk throwdown with Ivan Neville & guests at Bear Creek Music Fest 2011

Dr. Klaw is a funk super unit: 2 parts Lettuce, 2 parts Dumpstaphunk. The other part is usually the soulful keys man extraordinaire Nigel Hall, but on this occasion Nigel was replaced by Sir Ivan Neville since Nigel was out on the road making that big money with the Warren Haynes Band. (Although Nigel did get Warren to drop him off the next day so he could briefly rage Bear Creek with Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2 and Lettuce).

Anyway, Dr. Klaw mixed it up with several guests. They welcomed sit-ins by the Shady Horns (Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis) augmented by artist at large Jonathan Lloyd on trombone. Robert Walter snuck in on the organ a few times, and up-and-comer Jamie McLean added some very tasteful shredding guitar parts on several tunes. (Check Jamie out on these videos of the secret Tree House After Party Jam Session). It was also nice to hear Ivan Neville get down on a synthesizer, an instrument he doesn’t take on the road and you don’t hear him play very often.

By the time this performance ended at 3:30am Saturday morning our ears were exhausted by over 12 hours of literally non-stop funk, yet we had 2 more days of blissful aural delights forthcoming….

Dr. Klaw
November 11, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1) I Believe It
(2) The Same Thing [Sly Stone cover]
(2) The Lost Rager (w/ Jonathan Lloyd, Ryan Zoidis & Sam Kininger)

Dr. Klaw
November 11, 2011
Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1) God Made Me Funky [Headhunters cover] (w/ Robert Walter, Jamie McLean, Jonathan Lloyd, Ryan Zoidis & Sam Kininger)
(2) Hercules [Aaron Neville cover] (w/ Nikki Glaspie, Robert Walter, Jamie McLean, Jonathan Lloyd, & Ryan Zoidis)
(3) Higher Ground [Stevie Wonder cover] (w/ Andrew Block, Jamie McLean & Sam Kininger)
(4) Beef (w/ Jamie McLean)

Dr. Klaw:
Nick “Dr. Klaw” Daniels III: bass, vocals
Ian Neville: guitar
Adam Deitch: drums
Eric Krasno: guitar
Ivan Neville: keys, vocals (replacing Nigel Hall)

VIDEO 1: Canon Vixia HF21 by RLBayers
VIDEO 2: Zoom Q3 by Adam Firtel of CHeeSeHeaDPRoDuCTioNS
AUDIO: Sony ECM-MS908C (front row on video camera) + LiveMusicNola‘s mix (32 channel multi-track using all channels from the stage + 2 rooms mics)

P.S. If these videos aren’t enough, check out more videos of Dr. Klaw on the Creole Queen Riverboat during Jazz Fest 2011.

Lettuce conquers Bear Creek Music Festival with 2 nights of face melting psychedelic funk

Over the course of two cold November nights in the Florida swamp, psychedelic funk super group Lettuce provided the soundtrack for an epic multi-night rage. Keeping the crowd in their palm with “classic” Lettuce tunes and busting out several new ones, the band was as fresh as ever, and primed to hit the recording studio just a few weeks later. The performance at these sets was so spot on that I’ve heard rumblings of a possible live release bonus disc to coincide with their forthcoming new album.

Here I bring you 74 minutes of video culled from both nights, including sit-ins by George Porter Jr. and Nigel Hall. This should get everyone primed for Bowlive III this week. Enjoy!

Lettuce
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1 of 2) Blast Off, Ziggowatt, Sam Huff’s Flying Ragin’ Machine:

Lettuce
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(2 of 2) Need To Understand (w/ George Porter Jr), Nyack, Break Out > Relax:

Lettuce
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1 of 2) Madison Square, By Any Shmeeans Necessary, Jack Flask:

Lettuce (w/ Nigel Hall)
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(2 of 2) Move On Up (after this video ends, they go into Joy & Pain, a Maze tune, then back into Move On Up to conclude an epic 18 minute Move On Up):

Big thanks to JB @ microcosmologist blog for sharing some of his up close Krasno footage, and thanks to Bob Adamek for the top photo.

Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2 at Bear Creek Music Festival 2011

B. Getz, in his recent Bear Creek Music Festival review on JamBase, described Lettuce as Voltron: “individual vehicles joined together to form a giant super funk robot”. I, however, would give that moniker to Chapter 2.

Early Saturday afternoon at Uncle Charlie’s Porch Stage (arguably the best sounding stage at the festival), Eric Krasno, Adam Deitch, Nigel Hall, and Louis Cato joined forces to provide a wake up call to any Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park campers that might have overslept. WAKE UP! Chapter 2 at 2:25 p.m., The Funky Meters at 3:30, The New Mastersounds at 5, Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood at 6:30, Lettuce at 8, The Trey Anastasio Band at 9:30, and Dumpstaphunk’s Dumpstajam at midnight. There was no time to waste. And that was only 2 of the 7 stages operating that day! Not to mention that the music started at 11:30 a.m. and wouldn’t be stopping until 5 a.m.

I can’t say much about this group that you can’t find out by watching the videos. (Here at Funk It we like to let the content do the talking.) But I will point out that Louis Cato was the definitive all star of the entire festival. As far as I know, he played bass with Chapter 2, drums and percussion with fSnarky Puppy, trombone and bass at the Dumsptajam, drums with Dumpstaphunk the next night, and percussion and bass at the Tree House After Party Jam Session.

Seeing as this was the first full fledged Chapter 2 show with this lineup in over 7 months, they came out energized and at full force.

Here are the videos in raw HD with audio from my external mic:

Chapter 2 – 76 (end of the song):

Chapter 2 – Be Alright, Roll Out:

Chapter 2 – Roll Out (cont.):

Chapter 2 – Stratus (Billy Cobham cover):

Thanks to Bob Adamek & Dino Perrucci for the use of their photos.

And if you haven’t seen my Bear Creek teaser video, you should check it.

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