O Mighty Isis: A Reunion of Love

O Mighty Isis…they flew in from New York, Atlanta, Dublin, Austin, Los Angeles, and god knows where else to funk it up after 20 years…and once again, they didn’t disappoint the crowd that gathered in Palo Alto last weekend for the greatest reunion show to hit the Bay area.

Held at Club Illusions in Palo Alto, the near capacity crowd didn’t hesitate to donate to the two beneficiaries of the event, The Allen Temple AIDS Ministry and The Mural Music and Arts Program. Auction items, including a signed Marco Belinelli Golden State Warriors jersey and an autographed Jeremy Roenick framed photo, sold quickly…perhaps because the crowd was ready for the Mothership to start funking it up one more time…?

O Mighty Isis is and forever will be: Michael Hogan, David Lee, Kenneth Fleming, Greg Kehret, Pete “PAMF” Ruotolo, Jeff Davidson, Rasheed De La, Tom Maitland, Ed Landels, Tim Baily and Winton Reynolds…and (once upon a time) Hershel Yatovitz…getting 12 musicians from around the world to reunite after 20 years is no easy task, but add a lil something called Love and it’s a no-brainer.

“This is amazing, I can’t believe it’s actually happening,“ said singer Kenneth Fleming, “And I’m not dancing with anyone except Debbie.” Fleming is referring to the girl who was once a fixture on stage during OMI shows back in the day. After all, Debbie is largely responsible for the reunion, as she wanted to celebrate her 40th birthday with the band. As evidenced by the above photo, they both still got it going on and shimmied and shook their stuff to Prince’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover.’ “For me it was a lot of Love, Healing, Peace, and Joy,” said Fleming, “All together it was just great to hang out with my two younger sisters Robyne and Debbie. I will always remember this show because it gave me something that was priceless.”

Priceless indeed…even Yatovitz, who is currently touring with Chris Isaak, made an impromptu appearance and tore it up on the guitar just as he did back in the day. Other famous faces in the crowd included husband and wife jazz duo ‘Tuck and Patti,’ who said they wouldn’t have missed the show for anything.

As mentioned, there was a whole lotta love going on at this show…love that dates back to childhood and bonds people in ways too deep to put into words. It’s a love rooted in good people, willing to do anything to step up for each other and welcome new friends into the circle.

In fact, there was so much love that a second, more intimate show went down the next evening at Dan Browns in Palo Alto. The highlight of this show –for me- came from ‘Jimmy Finley.’ Finley once taught most, if not all, OMI members to play guitar. During both shows, Jimmy waited patiently by the stage, hoping to sit in and play with them…and I gotta say, it was worth the wait. Finley joined them during the show at Dan Browns…quietly and pensively, with a smoke hanging from his lips, Finley plugged in his guitar and began to play…at the time, I wasn’t truly aware of this mans talent, but once he turned it on I understood what a musical savant was. It’s no exaggeration to say Jimmy could easily outplay Hendrix or Prince on guitar…this is a universally accepted fact by anyone privy to hear Jimmy jam. (Photo credit: MATT WYCZALKOWSKI)

Thanks to OMI for one hell of a weekend…and thanks to all the generous sponsors including: ONE HOPE Wine; Starbucks (Red); SUST, Trader Joe’s, The Oakland A’s, The Golden State Warriors; Hobee’s; Jeremy Roenick; and of course Da Funk Crew.

Till next year…

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda@athlebrities.com