A GIG AT THE BEACH
Blog Post after Neptune´s Lodge & Beach Bar concert on August 31, 2024
This was a gig at the beach. First gig in six months. Have we been sleeping ?
The wind was blowing from South, which is why surfers from Tofo were hanging around. Not for the band, but for the heavy waves and protection from the cold. It only took a short morning video to convince a few colorful families to join us from Inhambane, because when the city is freezing you don´t always realize how sweet the beach can be. Rugby fans and motorsport amateurs wandered at the bar, willing to take the risk of getting convinced that funk is everything.
I asked Roland - our new bass player - what should we improve ? He said rhythm. We can play any note, he continued, that doesn’t matter as long as we play them in rhythm. Funk is indeed about a great rhythmic section, and sometimes the rest of the band just needs to shake and pretend they know how. Which seems to please everybody.
I asked the drummer for confirmation - what should we improve ? He said we need more gigs and money. Funk is indeed about money, I said. But is it less about working your ass off at rehearsing during days and hours every week and for nothing ?
Jaimito screamed nooooooo ! Please, we need to rehearse more, he cried, because we are all brain-damaged and can only remember notes from sheer repetition. Dieter approved: James Brown’s band would rehearse every day. Anybody showing up late in rehearsal would be fined on the next concert. Interesting.
Gilles was dancing his 68 years off the Neptune’s wooden floor.
I asked Abel - what should we improve ? He said play original songs. I like this answer because of how artistic and original Abel always is, simply searching for a simple way to be himself and close to his tradition. Roberto would disagree, he would say: learn your classics and venerate the masters for 20 more years, before you dare writing anything yourself. Roberto is a beat machine and a much harder-worker than Abel in music, but as far as funky original swag is concerned, Abel is number one in the band and gets the front seat.
Nakia and Lesmeri joined the stage and drank a shot of tequila.
Krik - which means car jack in French - is our lady singer who misses nine out of ten rehearsals – not very funky according to the old James´ rules. So I asked her: what should we improve ? Confidence, she said. No kidding. And arriving on time maybe ? Even showing up ? Or… Singing in tune, she added… Ha ! This one is for me ! Less focus on others´mistakes, more on my own. Thanks for reminding me.
Eventually the concert ended in joy, dances and screams, kids fooling around and more and more friends drinking at the bar, until the rugby game started and finished, with a victory. I am not sure if we managed to convince anyone that Funk tastes better than the Springboks, but it was a nice gig and the atmosphere was lovely. The overall joy continued to rise after the game, as did the number of cars stuck in the sand. Families who managed to get out were happy on their way home. We managed to get out somehow, so Funky Lula was happy. And played to live another gig.
