International Festival Featuring Eek-A-Mouse, O-Maya & J-Band

A rare and precious annual event in Chico, CA, is the International Festival. Where else can gown and town mingle with so much mutual respect and appreciation? The festival’s location at Kendall Lawn was perfect, as shady trees and a persistent breeze made the 90-degree temperature bearable.
Chico State’s 26th annual incarnation of the festival was a celebration worth attending. There were loads of great ethnic cuisine, along with various ethnic, religious and heritage based clubs that gave out information. The main stage hosted dancers performing traditional pieces from Laos, Ireland and West Africa. The event concluded with a rock band, a Latin hip-hop group and a roots reggae outfit.
One would have hoped that the dance performances would be spread throughout the day, instead of all lumped in the beginning. Unfortunately, tardy arrivers missed out on the colorful Laotian costumes and the youthful enthusiasm of the Ceili (pronounced KAY-lee) dancers. Exuberance and high energy characterized the African dancers. Djiby and Amadou, griots (storytellers through music and dance) from West Africa, brought a great gift to our community as teachers and performers.
The first band to take the stage was the J-Band, who hails from Sacramento, CA, and Los Angeles, with members scattered between the two cities. I'd characterize them as a hippy groove band, kind of like Freedom Tribe with a sprinkling of Dave Matthews and Barenaked Ladies thrown in for good measure. They used acoustic as well as electric guitars, and included steel drums and other percussive instruments. Lyrically they tended towards the contemplative, with a touch of social commentary. These all around nice guys switched off between singing in Spanish and English and informed the crowd that 10 percent of their CD sales would go to charity.
When O-Maya hit the stage, the dancing really got started. This group’s duo of a passionate, expressive female vocalist (with great pipes) and a male rapper with a decent flow, brought in-your-face political and revolutionary commentary. Most lyrics were sung in Spanish. Fortunately, my interpreter was there to clue me in. They were calling George W. Bush a suspicious liar with lyrics like "Haber Haber, sospechoso / Haber Haber, mentiroso." The band also gave birthday greetings to Mumia Abul Jamal, who's currently on death row for a crime no one can prove that he ever committed. One of their English lyrics was "money can't buy green trees / soon you won't have air to breathe / nothing less than freedom." I'm hoping this 10-member group will continue playing and getting their message across with their tasteful style.
During the break between the O-Maya and Eek-A-Mouse set, a DJ played some great Arabic groove music. One of the African dancers seized this opportunity to invite people out to the dance floor, and a spontaneous party emerged.
Enter the Mouse. I always imagined Eek-A-Mouse as the dreadlocked Rasta type, with a bit of the dancehall rapper mixed in. Instead, he looked more like an American gansta rapper, complete with a perfectly toned body and a baseball cap that he turned from forward, to backwards, to sideways throughout the show. The Mouse must be close to 50 years old, but he could pass for 26. His backup band was made up of seasoned pros who knew how to keep the momentum going. Charisma and audience interaction kept Eek-A-Mouse engaging. Otherwise, much of his material sounded the same to me, with gibberish rap lyrics such as, "bidee bidee boing ba bidee bidee boing.” Mouse's real name is Ripton Hylton and his gift is being the original sing-jay: A DJ who uses his voice as an instrument. His big hit is a song that's a story about the art of smuggling ganja. One of the first songs he sang at the festival was "I Feel Like Smokin a Spliff." Some members of the audience felt the same and obliged his invitation.
Eek-A-Mouse invited people from the audience to come up and dance on stage. This helped soften his image of being purely egotistical, somewhat. He enjoyed sharing the glory with his fans. He also displayed a social conscious for the poor and the imprisoned. Chico was blessed by exciting performances by Mouse, the other bands and dancers. The show ended late, but to lots of applause.
- Koz McKev

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