Musical Chairs

by Chad Armbruster

What do you get when you cross fat men, with musical talent? (Stop me if you've heard this one.) You get Cape's premier P-Funkesque ensemble, Funky Donkey Cheese. Ten members strong and heavily influenced by the likes of Tower of Power, Maceo Parker and James Brown, FDC has been on the Cape music scene for two years. Even though they've gone through some changes in the past few weeks they show no signs of easing up on dishing out everyone's daily dose of funk.

The changes that have occurred in the band are enough to make most groups pack up and go home for good. Over the past three weeks, FDC has lost its guitarist, bass player and one singer. But, because of their will to continue preaching Funk 24:7, they have vowed to carry on.

I sat down with one of FDC's singers, Bob Adcox (a.k.a. The Fat Man), to discuss the changes and where the band's future might be headed.

OFF! - You've gone through some member changes lately. Who's gone?

FDC - "Well, we've lost our bassist, guitarist, and one of our singers."

OFF! - Why?

FDC - "Our guitar left because of opinion differences. The Bassist and singer left for religious reasons."

OFF! - What are your personal feelings on them leaving?

FDC - "It sucks! It sucks to lose any member of a band. But I can't be mad at them for their reasons. You have to do whatever you think is going to make you happy."

OFF! - What about replacements? Are you auditioning at the moment?

FDC - "We've already found a guitarist, Ben Wodicker. And we're auditioning bass players right now. As far as another vocalist, I think we'll just stay with two."

OFF! - Do you consider this more fun or more work?

FDC - "It's work, but we're always having fun while we work. We're all friends and when we get together it just seems to be more fun than anything else."

OFF! - How long do you hope to be around?

FDC - "As long as people keep diggin' us, we'll keep playing. If we stay on that plateau where people keep coming to see us, it won't stop."

OFF! - So, what now?

FDC - "We keep going. We have gigs coming up in Mid- March at the Rude Dog and March 31 - April 1 at Broussard's. This is the only fun thing that I'm doing so why should I stop?"

Rumors may fly on how or why these changes took place, but the important thing is that FDC is neither down nor out of the music scene here in Cape.

If you've not heard them yet, you need to. If you have heard them, you know what the others are missing. FDC always puts on a show that could rival Barnam and Bailey (minus the elephants) and could be considered Cape's version of Dr. Zhivegas. The horns are the tightest around, the vocals are solid, and the crowd will surf.

One of the most amazing things about this group is that all the musicians are classically trained individuals that do this just for the fun of entertaining. With their numbers, they make no money on gigs, and what they do make goes to pay for their equipment. To find people like this in music and in Cape is truly a rarity. Overall, these musicians are an inspiration to others in that when life gets hard - just keep doing what you enjoy and it will all work out in the end.