The BEST band you've ever seen live:

[cemaphonic]

25. One of the best and most surprising was the non-Clinton version of Parliment

Around the early 2000s, there were two different touring P-Funk camps, one comprised of George Clinton (and occasionally some of the other big names like Bernie and Bootsy), and the other made up of several guys from the 70s lineup, and a bunch of younger musicians. I saw both, and Clinton's group just came across as totally bored and disengaged, and they devoted a completely unreasonable amount of time to some midde-aged, white rapper doing "topical" and "funny" raps that weren't funny and were a couple years late from being topical as well.

Meanwhile the other group played all the P-Funk hits, and played the shit out of them. They had something like 15 people crammed onto a tiny stage, so really full and busy arrangements, but the playing was tight enough that it didn't just devolve into the kind of muddy wall of noise that live shows sometimes turn into. The whole show was really high energy and lasted for something like 3.5 hours, and by the end, they seemed like they could just keep going all night.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings always put on an awesome show. Going to see Dave Rawlings Machine in a couple months with a lineup that includes Willie Watson from Old Crow Medicine Show, and John Paul Jones, who I understand was in some kind of Blues cover band back in the 70s.