Old Towne Civic Center, 136 River St, Petersburg, VA 23803
I had emailed Big Tony Fisher on myspace about Trouble Funk's planned album "Cold Millennium". He told me their new album "The Vault", would be sold at their show in Petersburg. He gave me the details on the show.
The traffic on 95 South was so bad I nearly turned around.
I bought a copy of The Vault which came with a CD single of their remix of Jay-Z' Show Me What You Got.
This was an outdoor show; most of the audience brought their own lawn chairs.
I forgot to bring paper in so, I took brief notes on the sleeve the CD single came in (I had already moved it to the jewel box with the album).
Soul Logistics
They are a local group that both rapped and sang over tracks.
The MC, a local DJ, said that it had taken 2 years to get Trouble Funk.
Trouble Funk
Dave, Fats, T-Burns, Big Feet, Big Tony, Smitty, Allison
Picture taken by and Copyright - Jordan Rich
Tee Bone was there, but he worked the monitors instead of performing.
The line up was: Big Tony Fisher (bass & vocals), T-Burns (vocalist/cowbell player), Dave Gussum (guitar player/vocalist), Smitty (keyboards), Allison (keyboards), Big Feet (drummer), Dennis Sterling/Fats (percussion). Big Tony provided the line up for me and added: Denver Wright/The Wiz (producer/engineer).
They started performing around 8:50. They had their performance filmed.
Big Tony called the audience onto the concrete dance floor. Most of the audience was in their 30s and up.
They performed "Lock that thing in the socket", Hey Fellas, "Tastes real good, we like it like that", "Take it to the Bridge", Pump Me Up, The Shop Boyz' Party Like a Rock Star - fans sang it, Jay-Z' Show Me What You Got (led by T-Burns), Let's Get Small, Huey's Pop, Lock & Drop It, Rare Essence's Lock It (led by Dave), Trouble Funk Express, Big Tony announced they were going to perform the first song they recorded (in 1979), he called up the guy who was selling the CDs for them and they performed E Flat Boogie, "Where you from" (led by T-Burns), "Where's the party?", "Put your hands up", Don't Touch That Stereo, the MC communicated to Dave who passed it on to Big Tony - "We need to move the party inside" which meant ending Trouble Funk's performance as DJ were playing music inside, "Hello, are you ready to Go?", Drop the Bomb.
They finished around 10:10.
Big Tony was so impressed with the audience reaction that he said, "We're going to have to play in Petersburg at least once a week."
They said they would be performing in Richmond on August 3rd.
I said hello to Tee Bone and Big Tony, then I left and headed for Tradewinds.
