The funky Meters - 3/9/07 - Fox Theatre

This was a last minute, Friday night call to head down to the Fox and check out the funky Meters - Art Neville (keys) and George Porter Jr. (bass) from the original Meters with Russell Baptiste (drums) , Ian Neville (guitar) and Skerik (sax).

Packed house but plenty of room in our now “usual spot” on the left side of the stage. The band played one long set plus an encore and had the place rocking the entire time with a nice selection of classic Meter’s tunes.

Some random thoughts:

  • Skerik, a last minute fill-in as Brian Stoltz had quit the band about a week before the show, fit in nicely and it was fun to see him play in a more “normal / traditional” style than his usual craziness. He did have a few moments where he got pretty out there going back and forth with GPjr.
  • A woman in the front row, apparently overcome with the funk (and maybe a little bit too much to drink) hopped on the stage and danced around for a while. The security at the Fox gently pulled her off the stage and then (and here’s why I love the Fox) escorted her back to her spot in the front row.
  • George Porter Jr. sure can play the bass - a true master.

gpjr.jpg

{photo from www.georgeporterjr.com}

  • Overheard in the bathroom: “Dude, this band is awesome - I think that they just played a Galactic song!” Ah, yeah, pretty sure that Galactic might have grabbed that one from the Meters a while back… Kids these days…