Femi Kuti and the Positive Force @ Paradise Rock Club – January 23
Words: Andrew Bruss
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force vamped through a nearly two hour set at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club that was so authentically Nigerian (minus the English lyrics) that one could almost forget about the sub-arctic temperatures outside the venue.
[Members of Positive Force on Jam Cruise by Dave Vann]
The eldest son of Fela Kuti, political dissident and founder of the Afrobeat genre, Femi is heir to the throne of the musical kingdom his father created. That means his music fuses funk, big band horns, African polyrhythm’s and political lyrics that make an audience member want to rise up and shed the chains of colonialism (where applicable).
Kuti had a tough time filling The Paradise on a Wednesday night, but the crowd he drew was enthusiastic and happy to participate in the call and response chants coming from the stage.
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Dan Auerbach is best known for being half of the Akron, OH blues-rock duo The Black Keys. The singer/guitarist, who sounds remarkably like Warren Haynes, seems to have found the two-man format a bit cumbersome as he will release his solo debut Keep It Hid on February 10. The album is said to be mixture of psychedelia, soul music and country harmonies.
Auerbach has a lined up a brief 11 date cross-country club run to showcase the material – which starts a few weeks after The Black Keys finish a short tour of their own.
If you’d rather see both Keys in action, than maybe one of these recently announced tours will be for you…
Finally, the folks behind the annual River To River music festival are now stretching their Seaport Music Festival into the winter months thanks to the opening of a new ice skating rink on Pier 17. While no line up has officially been revealed the rink is set to open this Friday (November 28), with the weekly music series running through February.
