(Shout! Factory; 85 minutes)

www.shoutfactory.com

To celebrate the bicentennial, George Clinton brought his merry over-sized band on tour for the heralded "Earth Tour." His label ponied up thousands and thousands of dollars to support the roving extravaganza, which to date has mostly only been document aurally. Appropriately, the 14-song, 85-minute show seen here happened on All Hallows Eve where the band showed off its finest, freakiest outfits for a virtual Halloween pageant out of Sun Ra's dreams.

Featured in this Houston show is P-Funk in its glory days (Mothership Connection had just come out) as they were gloriously meshing white and black music cultures together with pioneering funk bumping up and down with rock stylings. Even the band's line-up is stellar, showing off not only the original singers of Clinton's old harmony group and James Brown's horn section but also a certain Mr. Bootsy Collins as well as keysman Bernie Worrell (always an integral part of the band's sound) and singer/guitarist Gary Shider (ditto) and such then-new rising stars as string-bender Michael Hampton, bassist Cardell "Boogie" Mosson, drummer Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey, singer Glen Goins and the future Brides of Funkenstein.

As exciting and historical as it is to see this footage, the filming could have been better. The lighting's erratic as best, so sometimes we're unsure of what we're seeing. Also, while the close-ups let you enjoy all of the outlandish costumes (personal fave is Hampton's feathery sombrero), you don't get to see any group shots until the end where Bootsy plus special guest (and show opener) Sly Stone appear with their posses for "Give Up the Funk" and "Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples." Until then, we rarely see one or two players together, taking away from the communal madness that the show offered. But still, how much are you gonna quibble about when you get to see the arrival and landing of the Mothership itself on stage (a pretty expensive prop as it was) with Clinton coming out to preside over the show.

Unfortunately, storm clouds were already brewing in the P-Funk camp. Clinton's old doo-wop group would leave the collective next year and actually win a lawsuit to briefly use the Funkadelic name themselves. Goins and Brailey would bolt, too, with the former dying at age 24 and the later making a concept album accusing Clinton of faking the funk. The money spent on the tour didn't come close to matching the money coming in and would help to bring the downfall of the P-Funk empire in the early ‘80s. Clinton would resurrect the P-Funk name in the 90's, keeping it constantly recording and touring, even now with recent shows featuring Shider, Mosson and Hampton in tow, keepin' the spirit of funk alive.

Special Features: none. JASON GROSS