On November 11, at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, the original Meters (to be distinguished from the funky Meters) reunited, for the first time since 1983.

As mystical seers of the First Church of the Funk, we here at OffBeat had already canonized the Meters and prophesied the reunion of their spirits by the time the conventional world heard that it was, indeed, a reality.

A two-tiered reaction was common among New Orleanians: a short-lived excitement beyond their funkie...