• WHAT'S NEW
• REVIEWS
• INTERVIEWS
• GALLERY
• ABOUT
• CONTACT
• LINKS
• BLOGS
• MESSAGE BOARDS

Michael Franti And The Spearhead at Metropolis, Montreal
Review and photos by Music Vice contributor Elizabeth Keith - November 10, 2008

The post-American election glow is all out in the streets tonight, and is on proud display in the joy, on the faces - and t-shirts – of those who showed up to see Michael Franti and Spearhead play Metropolis tonight. As much as I hate music journalists who put their own politics into music reviews – keep that shit on the editorial page, IMHO – the politics of peace are a dominant theme in Michael Franti’s music, so it’s almost impossible not mention it, especially on their first show post-election. Hopeful euphoria is the running theme tonight, and the celebratory mood is evident. Having watched the election from home, this is the first instance of communal joy I get to share in for the history that’s been made in the US, and it’s potent.

Opening for Franti is Solillaquists of Sound, and the floor quickly fills up as SoS serve up a healthy dose of hiphop and on-the-sleeve politics. Unlike some punk bands I could mention, the message here does not usurp the medium, with MCs Alexandrah and Swamburger leading the vocal flow and MPCist DiViNCi providing a sonic mélange méchanique that travels the distance between hiphop, jungle and jazz; the result goes down well while still leaving the listener agitated.

"Alexandrah has a beautiful range of vocal style, whether fast-paced rap or a jazz croon to a classical Indian-style falsetto..."

Three songs into the set lead female MC Alexandrah breaks into the opening lines from Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, a song that depicts with brutal clarity the banal indifference that used to greet lynchings in the Old South. This segues into Black Guy Peace, a lament for the co-option of the revolutionary into a brand, and the mindless consumption that fills the void where meaning used to be. The line "I promote peace / not a savior on the ballot box" is a rebuke of follow-the-leader mentalities, and the song drives home the idea that it’s actions following ideas, not labels and trends, that matter.

Alexandrah has a beautiful range of vocal style, whether fast-paced rap or a jazz croon to a classical Indian-style falsetto, that she shows off in the opening to Beautiful Catastrophe. My favorite song played that night has to be the drum & bass-fueled Mark It Place, as much for the frenetic beats as for the shot across the bow of the advertising industry that profits from creating artificial needs.

Michael Franti and Spearhead take the stage a little before 9:30 and – I called this one – open up with Hello Bonjour, warmly received by the mostly bilingual crowd. Love him as much as I do, Franti is an artist that, to me, always seems to sound better live than on his studio albums – which isn’t to say that his albums are exactly sedate, just that the passion and soul of his music is just more amplified as it reverberates off the audience’s reaction, and he clearly enjoys playing with the crowd.

Franti and Spearhead jam through a couple of older hits, tossing in for good measure the ska-tinged RudeBoys Back in Town - off of All Rebel Rockers, their latest album – before later drifting into a Bob Marley medley of Get up Stand Up and Stir It Up. Having lived in a dorm with a sizeable Caribbean student population, I really can’t listen to Marley anymore (I’m more a Toots and the Maytals gal myself) but the songs fit right with the warm vibe brewing in the crowd and I think I’m alone on giving it a pass.

"...the crowd rocking to a song written just that afternoon: I have no idea what it's going to be called, but the refrain of "BARACK OBAMA!" might be a hint. "

Franti switches between upbeat shake-your-ass songs and more introspective ones, pulling out a stool for a few of the latter. Before he launched into anything, though, Franti told the crowd about watching the elections with his nine-year-old son: “Last night was so great, and I’ve been happy ever since… I told my son about how when I was nine, we used to joke about having a black President, you know like, maybe in 200 years. And now, not only do we have a black President, but a great person as President.” I actually see some tears in the cheering crowd, and I’m holding back a few myself. The spirit in the packed floor is pretty elated, and the people that are swaying to Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong and Hey World will soon be skanking and rocking to Yell Fire! and a song written just that afternoon: I have no idea what it's going to be called, but the refrain of "BARACK OBAMA!" might be a hint. It’s a great fun little ska tune, and I hope it makes it onto an album some day, or at least a decent internet bootleg.

The show winds down – or up, one last time – with Say Hey and then the sound system starts blaring Bob Marley’s Could You Be Loved. Franti dives into the welcoming crowd, hugging ecstatic fans, sharing the joyous momentum brought from the previous night’s election in America with some crazy Canuck fans who turned out to celebrate hope, and rock ‘til the early morn.

© Elizabeth Keith

Extra photos - click on thumbnails to view large:

Solillaquists of Sound - www.solilla.com
Michael Franti and Spearhead - www.spearheadvibrations.com