Michael Franti & Spearhead

Feb. 19th, 2008 – Last Tuesday night, the Michael Franti & Spearhead Yell Fire! worldwide tour touched down for a stop at Chico State. They came and grooved the capacity out of the BMU Auditorium. The night before the show, tickets were sold out. That meant 1000 groove-fiending folks filled the BMU February 19th to be in the presence of peace proclaiming and politic-promoting Franti & Spearhead.

    People started filtering into the venue in waves at around 7:30PM when the doors opened. As parents in loafers and khakis, college students in button-down shirts and adults with dreads toting little dread-heads arrived, fans pushed to the front and waited for the musical vibes to flow. Although the show was supposed to start at 8PM, the crowd showed no sign of discontent and was ready to jump when Franti & Spearhead finally started the reggae jams over half an hour late.



    Throughout the show, it was hard to deny and forgo catching the contagious energy of realistic love, peace and fair politics. Even a huge background tapestry of Ganesha, an elephant deity known as the “remover of obstacles,” represented political problems and the need for peace and love. This modern-day depiction of a deity, with satellites for ears, held a bloody hamburger, an airplane and a handgun while rearing a television in its belly and rockin’ sneakers. With bright orange, red, blue and yellow lights shining down on Franti & Spearhead and the incredible artwork as background, the stage was captivating and inspiring.

    Franti & Spearhead played for two full hours and never let the positive energy dip. Franti constantly encouraged the crowd to clap their hands, jump and sing along with their hands raised to the sky. The scene was an amazing mix of people, music, love, rhythm, resonating words and jamming. If you were there, you would have been exhausted from all the involvement; that is if you weren’t on a positive energy high. Some people were just grooving and chilling, while others seemed to be filled with the Frant-astic rhythm, bounding skipping and hopping around to the upbeat reggae rhythm.

    When Franti & Spearhead finished their set and left the stage, the crowd went crazy cheering for more, more, encore, encore. Franti & Spearhead were clapped back onstage to an encore of a mashed-up, boom-boom-boom version of “What I Got” by Sublime. While playing the tune by one of Franti’s “favorite bands,” the group pumped up the positivity with “Sunny Days” from Sesame Street. Franti sang in both Big Bird and the Cookie Monster voices. It was rad, and also a bit odd. The group played another song and then finished up their encore with a song about love. With all the love, you’d have thought it was hump day or Valentine’s Day or the end of the world or something. It was great. A huge thumbs up to the dude that bought as many waters as he could carry and passed them out to his thirsty-looking, fellow Franti fans. That was love. To cap the concert off, Franti pulled a little girl and boy up on stage to jump around and dance. Oh, yes, and how can you forget about a concert that ends in five reggae dudes doing a can-can kick line as a farewell to their fans. Remember current and potential Franti fans, “There’s life in this love and love in this life. And all I want is you.”

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