Dumpstaphunk brought the spirit of New Orleans and a few special guests to Augusta, Georgia for The Major Rager Music Festival on Friday night. Legendary Meters bassist George Porter Jr. and guitar whiz kid Brandon “Taz” Niederauer had star turns and even brought some horns along to really capture the N’awlins sound. They couldn’t have chosen a more fitting place to get down and dirty because Augusta knows a little something about funk, seeing as its home to the late, great Godfather Of Soul, James Brown himself!
While it’s common for most folks thoughts to turn to golf when you mention Augusta, particularly now during the Masters Golf Tournament, the promoters for the Major Rager have turned their annual event into a must see alternative to hitting the links. Folks lined up hours in advance to snag good spots for this year’s funk heavy line-up, a change from last year’s Flaming Lips-headlined event. The all ages crowd saw folks from nine to ninety crowding up front to dance and smile under the warm April sun.
Lucky for them, the show was being opened by Dumpstaphunk, a band built on the rock solid foundation of drummer Alvin Ford Jr. and bassist Nick Daniels the third. Ford’s mix of snappy drums and splashy cymbals perfectly countered Daniels incredibly thick, molasses-esque bass sound. Multi-instrumentalist Tony Hall switched back and forth between bass and guitar while singing and cheerfully mugging for the crowd. Ian Neville played slinky guitar licks while his cousin Ivan Neville lead the show, as always, with soulful organ and piano fills and his trademark gruff howl of a voice.
We have plenty more to come from the Major Rager, including videos from the James Brown Band, PFunk and the Everyone Orchestra but now let’s check out some of the guitar shredding, bass dropping funky good times from the Dumpstaphunk set. Up first is the wild sit in with Taz, followed by a special, horn filled take on the Dumpsta jam “Justic!” There are playlists of other highlights from the set following each clip, so, as they say in the Crescent City, sit back and let the good times roll!
“Dumpstapunk with “Taz”
“Justice”