Dumpstaphunk has a tradition of delivering crowd-pleasing, super funkified cover sets at the Wanee Music Festival and yesterday’s Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute was no exception. The tree lined amphitheater was frenetic thanks to the bouncing bass, as the hordes of fans getting down to the sounds of Ivan Neville‘s outfit was pumping through the massive stacks of speakers flanking the stage. Though their might have been a lyrical miscue or two, the band had the feeling on lockdown and everyone in earshot was grinning from ear to ear at the nostalgic wave of jams getting pumped out.
Drawing from Chili Peppers’ iconic Blood Sugar Sex Magic album, Dumpstaphunk dedicated the second half of the set to a handful of that disc’s most beloved tunes. Ivan Neville told a quick anecdote about sharing recording studio space with Peppers drummer Chad Smith last week. When Neville told Smith his band was preparing to cover the Chili Peppers classics, Smith apparently said, “Do it right!”, and Dumpstaphunk clearly took that advice to heart.
Reinterpreting songs so well known to the audience might be daunting to some, but Dumpstaphunk took it in perfect stride. It helps when you have a bassist as fluid and powerful as Nick Daniels III on hand to help bring Flea‘s insane bass lines to life. Guitarists Tony Hall and Ian Neville nailed John Frusciante‘s slinky leads. Frontman Ivan Neville did his level best Anthony Keidis impersonation but, as he jokingly noted during a song break…”These songs have a lot of words man.” He might not have been up to speed rapping lyrics as adeptly as Keidis, but the groove was definitely in the Peppers spirit!
Dumpstaphunk covered eight Chili Peppers tunes…”Give It Away,” “My Lovely Man,” “Mellowship In Slinky B Major,” “Righteous & The Wicked,” “Suck My Kiss,” “Funky Monk,” “If You Have To Ask” and
“Power Of Equality” for a wildly excited Wanee crowd. In a weekend that already saw Roosevelt Collier drop a stellar tribute to Jimi Hendrix on night one, Dumpsta knew the bar was set high and they cleared that hurdle with plenty of room to spare with their set. You can check out the full-length videos below. Enjoy!
“Give It Away”
“Power Of Equality”
“Righteous & The Wicked”
“Funky Monk”