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Antibalas :: 09.23.04 :: Fox Theatre :: Boulder, CO
Antibalas :: 09.23.04 The Fox by Tony Stack |
For the regular concertgoer, there are average shows, good shows, and then there are the nights that will stay with you for the rest of your days. Hope springs eternal after you walk into a concert skeptical and unenthusiastic, and walk out a converted fan. On an unassuming Thursday night in Boulder, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra showed that they know how to "gedder done" in a live setting. Personally, I was exhausted heading into the show. It was freezing outside with horrendous parking, which meant walking several blocks through the bone-chilling winds in a t-shirt. Half a dozen friends all had other plans, and I was flying solo to the venue. At that point, I was really hoping for an early night.
I got something much better: a concert experience that reaffirmed my belief in the power of live music. Once inside the Fox Theatre, I was stunned at the turn-out, as the place was completely packed. Antibalas (Spanish for "bulletproof") is an 11, 12, or 13-piece band (depending on who you talk to) hailing from Brooklyn. They place heavy emphasis on percussion and horns, so think equal parts Fela Kuti, Galactic, and Ozomatli. They approach their sound in a way that is both non-western and completely refreshing, with each band member having an equally important role in making the music. Afrobeat music itself originated in the late '60s in southern Nigeria with the late Fela Kuti, who coined the term and incited the genre. The music features heavy rhythms infused with political messages which led many to hail Kuti as "Africa's Bob Dylan."
Duke Amayo of Antibalas
09.23.04 by Tony Stack |
Antibalas takes the torch ignited by Kuti and runs with it. Repetition is the organizing principle of the music, and improvisation develops from the simple rhythmic patterns laid out by the band. The bass line is relentless and becomes infectious a couple minutes into the song. Once the musical conversations are layered over the beat, the music assumes a near trance-like quality in its intoxicating effect. Most music is simply heard, but this music was clearly felt--a truly visceral experience if there ever was one.
In sticking with their egalitarian principles of musicianship, Antibalas never really had a true frontman for the group and kept rotating duties throughout the night. Clearly the most magnetic personality was percussionist Duke Amayo, whose vocal outbursts always seemed appropriate, genuine, and managed to get a remarkable amount of crowd participation. While the vast majority of the show was spent promoting some serious ass-shakin', the band also promoted the message to get out and vote. Verbal skats on John Ashcroft, Condoleezza Rice, and Jerry Falwell either added to the show or didn't detract from the music too much (depending on your political proclivities). An hour into the show, the Fox Theater was rocking. The band was feeling it, and invited a dozen or so Colorado University coeds onstage to dance with them for a couple tunes. The crowd responded by dancing even harder, and by that point everyone seemed bound and determined to have an incredible musical experience.
Antibalas :: 09.23.04 The Fox by Tony Stack |
The band as a whole wasn't interested in playing songs so much as they were focused on the process of creating music and sharing a unique experience with the audience. This is a band that has a great deal of cross-over appeal to a number of people--one of those shows that you can drag your friends to that may have different taste in music. Indeed, anyone who remotely enjoys the art of making music will absolutely fall in love with this band within a half hour.
In addition to having a rotating coterie of vocalists, Antibalas let each member have their moment in the spotlight by giving them room to solo. "Move Your Ass" was definitely one of the more memorable songs of the evening, as was one of the many Fela Kuti covers the band is ambitious enough to recreate. The band finished the two-hour set with the title track off their latest release Who is This America? This is quite simply one of those live bands that you feel a need to tell all your friends about.
Without moving more than three feet in any direction, the majority of the crowd was drenched with sweat at the end of the night. When it was all said and done, the walk back to the car wound up feeling more refreshing than chilly, and the powerful horn arrangements echoed through my head instead of thoughts about waking up in five hours to go to work in the morning. The band's performance was high-energy and utterly life-affirming. Everyone that walked out of the Fox that night felt something--that somehow, the moment they were living in after the show was different, more complete, than the moments preceding it. This is what live music can be, should be, and is when you decide to share a night with Antibalas.
Nathan Rodriguez
JamBase | Colorado
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