Merda was the case

Black Merda were Detroit funk rock pioneers back in the 1960s, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Sly and The Family Stone and others. After a 30-year hiatus collectors began to pay attention to their groundbreaking style and the group reunited in January last year. Guitarist Charles Hawkins and bassist V.C. L. Veasey are the two originals. They have a new keyboardist in Clint Reid and a drummer whose name I don't know (he could be Darrell "Chuck" Robinson). I thought they were okay musically, but the crowd was unwilling to be impressed. Even teasing them with a distorted version of The Star-Spangled Banner before a segue into one of their own tunes failed to get a rise.

Charles H.



V.C.







First degree Merda!





V.C. attempts to resuscitate the inert audience.



The whole crew.



I won't say their performance was stellar; they still have some rust to knock off. I suspect the lame crowd response wasn't helped by their being scheduled between two dissimilar acts - The Asylum Street Spankers and Brazilian Girls.