Michael Franti & Spearhead

The music started a little late Friday night at the new auditorium and much to my surprise, the scattered and sparse crowd seemed to double in density and size. An older man with massive dreads came out to introduce Spearhead and asked for a moment of silence for the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC before the music started rolling. The "moment" seemed to last an eternity and I was actually amazed that the crowd was respectful enough to remain silent for the whole time - after all, people came to dance and be crazy.
Spearhead hit the stage with full force, and before we knew it, Michael's politically conscious lyrics were being spat in a very impressive voice range, accompanied by his unique dance-hall style reggae / funk band members. The vibe was very strange; imagine an extremely happy crowd dancing to hip-hop. They played a couple of songs, both of which attacked our country's atrocities in both foreign and domestic policy and then he gave his whole take on the events that had occurred almost a month ago. He offered an invitation to the listeners to escape all of the mental anguish that had been pent up and said to dance the night away. His opening lines to the next song, borrowed from Bob Marley, were very fittingly, "One good thing about music: When it hits you feel no pain."
The next addition to the stage presence was Michael's partner from "the old school," Radioactivity. His forte was beat-boxing, and shit, I have never heard anyone beat-box that good in my life. He was so good that he could not only throw beats, but also make very realistic sounding record scratching noises in between beat patterns. Who needs turntables?
As the night progressed, so did the diversity of the music. Jazz and blues elements became audible through the talented guitarist and electric piano player. Michael started throwing out some soul type vocals that were backed by the falsetto of his bassist. His hit, "Rock the Nation," came as a surprise because of the somewhat hypocritical use of lyrics like, "Bomb the Nation," as a chorus (to remind Americans of the dangers of corporate America) after his animate anti-violence stance which had seemed to prevail until that point in the night. What really amazed me about Michael Franti is the fact that he remained so positive and smiley the whole night, even while most of his lyrics addressed some very real and depressing themes. I had never really seen that done before. After nearly two hours of playing, the exhausted crowd meandered home.
- Jason Hicks
- Photo by Myles Stenger

Bookmark: