I Got Funked Up -- Dumpstaphunk-ed

Who doesn't want to get funky, excuse me, phunky? Last Thursday at LA's The Mint, a jazz-esque club with a low-rising stage that keeps acts at eye level and Tuaca is on tap, I caught the funk... Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk. It happened gradually, enveloping me like a buzz and before I could control anything I was riding a wave of zing and ass-shaking like no one should have seen in public.

The sold out gig brought Ivan Neville and his B3 Hammond organ, baby-faced relative and guitarist Ian Neville, bassist Nick Daniels, and Trey Anastasio Band alums Tony Hall and drummer Raymond Weber. The show, which drew a line out the door, started off slow opening up with the Sly and the Family Stone number "I Cannot Make It." To be honest it didn't sound so funky at first. The clean and crisp delivery of the lyrics "Cryin', sighin', dyin '" leaned toward the adult contemporary side and I wanted to get down like I was listening to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" for the first time ever.

But before I could complain Neville cleared it up for me from stage. "We gonna keep getting funkier and funkier and funkier as the night gets along." So funkier is a word? Noted. And then without further a due Neville simply announced to the packed and comfortable jazz club. "It's time to get nasty." And they did.

Most people who've told me to see Dumpstaphunk share some late-night New Orleans Jazz Festival or Mardi Gras after-after-show memory- -- tumbling out of Tipitina's or the Howlin' Wolf at 5am drenched in sweat after dancing for hours. Perhaps what Dumpstaphunk do best is build the funk up so much you don't want it to stop. This time the set was a good 2 hours. The band has definitely played longer, but it was still long enough where Ian Neville had to walk off stage for a potty break. He got to budge the line for the bathroom.

Some of the songs sampled that evening included Parliament's "Unfunky UFO,"Steve Miller Bands' "Fly Like An Eagle" which morphed into the Meters' "Love Slip Upon Ya." Nasty it was. "Somebody scream!"'s and "everybody feelin' alright?"'s from the band always kept an intimate feeling between the crowd and music. By the time the band played their trademark "Put It In The Dumpsta" everyone was having a good ass time.

But where does the funk come from? The way a jam starts off slow and then speeds up towards the end? Is it a key solo picking up where a bass solo left off? Is it the audience flailing and bouncing up and down that makes it funky? Because it sure wasn't this funky when I walked into the joint.

Closing with another Sly Stone tune "Thank You," the band basically sang the words out of my mouth. Thank you for the party and falettinme be mice elf agin (flailing arms and all.)

To download the live show head here.

Dumpstaphunk at The Mint setlist:

01 intro/tuning
02 I Can Not Make It
03 Okey Doke
04 Gasman
05 Deeper
06 Greazy Groceries
07 Keep on Marchin' >
08 Slippin' Into Darkness >
09 Fly Like an Eagle >
10 Love Slip Upon Ya
11 Put It In The Dumpsta
12 She's Music
13 Paper Chasing Britney
14 Unfunky UFO
15 Meanwhile
16 Standin'
17 Drum Solo
18 Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Again)*

P.S. As for photos this is what the photog emailed me the next day.

"Didn't get any pics last night -- drank too much." Yeah…pretty much sums it all up.