Bring on the Funk

One of the best live shows I've ever seen was George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars at La Luna in Portland sometime in teh mid-90s. I'm just a little too young have seen Parliament. Hey, no complaints though, this was an awesome show.
I believe I went to the show with Jim and Jenny, but they spent the whole show in the bar and after my one drink, I moved out to my favorite spot on the floor beside the soundboard. Over the years going there, I met quite a few musicians as they came back to the soundboard to talk about something or other.
The highpoint of this night was definitely standing and smoking joints with a full-grown man dressed in a giant diaper. Mr. Clinton didn't speak much, I guess he was letting his onstage performance do his speaking. This was the third coolest concert experience I've had.
Well, I guess I can't say that and not list numbers 2 and 1. Interestingly, they all involve pot (which, for the record I haven't smoked in just shy of 10 years).
The second coolest concert experience was seeing Neil Young perform on the Portland waterfront during the Timberfest in '94. Mr. Young was the warm-up act for Vice President Al Gore. I went on this mid-afternoon adventure with Mark. We did bring any pot with us. We didn't need to. According to the media there were 400,000 people crammed into the waterfront. It seems that every other person was pulling out a bong or a pipe. The police and National Guard troops just contained the crowd. Mark and I were somewhere in the middle of all the madness, maybe a third of the way back in the crowd. It was truly an awesome experience, especially when Mr. Gore buzzed the crowd in his black helicopter.
But, the coolest conert experience happened during the 8th and final Mayor's Ball in Portland. While the Crazy 8's were playing a set in the main room. I found myself in a circle of about 20 guys at half-court. We were passing about five pipes aaround in a clockwise manner. I don't know exactly when I noticed who I was standing between, but pretty early on, because I got to talk to them a little bit. On my left was Kim Thayill, guitarist for Soundgarden and on my right was the band's lead singer, Chris Cornell. If anyone from the bank ever heard that I had a Soundgarden story, well this is the reason I couldn't tell it.

Ohh, to be young again.