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REVIEW: Antibalas @ Berbati’s Pan (Portland, OR – 7/19/10)
FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW at the BOTTOM
Originating from Brooklyn, ANTIBALAS (aka Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra) is: AMAYO (Vocals & Percussion), VICTOR AXELROD (Organ/Clavinet), ERIC BIONDO (Trumpet), STUART BOGIE (Tenor Sax), MARCUS FARRAR (Shekere), MARCOS GARCIA (Guitar), AARON JOHNSON (Trombone), JORDAN MCLEAN (Trumpet), NICK MOVSHON (Bass), LUKE O’MALLEY (Guitar), MARTIN PERNA (Baritone Sax, founder) and CHRIS VATALARO (Drums).
They are sooooo fun in concert, words don’t do them justice. I saw them back in 2007 in the Cincinnati area, and haven’t had a chance since now to see them again. I’ve been Jonesin’ for an Antibalas fix.
They’ve been busy the last couple years with the multiple-Tony Award winning FELA! Broadway musical (a tribute to afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti). This July, Antibalas is doing a mini-tour in pre-support for their upcoming album on Anti-Records (untitled as of now). The Sway Machinery opened the Portland show…
They were a nice horn-infused Jewish five piece rock band. Their MySpace billed them as “Other / Blues / Afrobeat.” Outside of the horns, I didn’t really hear the afrobeat. Definitely Judaic and bluesy – I dug their sound. The mix last night was a bit bass heavy, and the vocals got drowned out, but I liked their vibe overall. Their line-up is fairly power-packed… guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood of Balkan Beat Box, drummer Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, bass saxophonist Colin Stetson of Arcade Fire and Tom Waits‘ band, and the trumpet and tenor sax horn section of the band Antibalas, Jordan McLean and Stuart Bogie. They’ve got an album, Hidden Melodies Revealed, out on JDub Records (same record label as Balkan Beat Box, SoCalled, etc).
Antibalas went on a little after 10:15 and hit the ground running with their percussive, groove-laden, horn-drenched bombast. Lead vocalist Amayo came out at the second song and started off on percussion before moving over to lead vocals…
The sound in the club got a little more balanced for Antibalas, whose 12 band members were tightly jamming away. Great mix of horn-heavy tunes, percussion heavy tunes. The packed house danced away to the fun beats. I’m horrible with their song names, and they didn’t play as many lyrical songs; so no luck on a setlist this time around. If anyone has a setlist, pass it along, please.
Antibalas jammed away for a fairly dancey, long set without showing signs of letting up. A fantastic night! I’m hoping they hit the PacNW again when they come back through to support their upcoming untitled record. Portland, Eugene, anywhere really. :)
more photos below
The Appropriate Linkage:
- Antibalas’ Site
- Antibalas on MySpace
- FELA! Musical on Broadway
- The Sway Machinery’s Site
- The Sway Machinery on MySpace
- Berbati’s Pan
Check out more tour dates below.
~Dan – np: Jon Madof’s Rashanim – Masada Rock 
ANTIBALAS & THE SWAY MACHINERY PHOTOS
all pictures (cc) 2010 Daniel Temmesfeld,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution
(click for larger)
Antibalas July 2010 Tour Dates
- 07.14.10 – San Diego, CA – Casbah
- 07.15.10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echoplex
- 07.16.10 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
- 07.17.10 – Garberville, CA – Reggae on the River
- 07.19.10 – Portland, OR – Berbati’s Pan
- 07.20.10 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
- 07.22.10 – New York, NY – River to River Festival, Castle Clinton
- 07.29.10 – Philadelphia, PA – Kimmel Center, Perelman Theater
Antibalas & Fishtank
Two unrelated world music tidbits…
Afrobeat group Antibalas is finally hitting the road again… specifically the West Coast (they’ve been involved in getting the Fela! musical going on Broadway the past year or so). They’re thankfully swinging through my neck of the woods; so look for a review in mid-July:
Monday, 17 May 2010 – Webster Hall, New York, NY
Thursday, 15 July 2010 – The Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA
Friday, 16 July 2010 – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Saturday, 17 July 2010 – Reggae On The River, Garberville, CA
Monday, 19 July 2010 – Berbati’s Pan, Portland, OR
Tuesday, 20 July 2010 – Neumos, Seattle, WA
Thursday, 22 July 2010 – Castle Clinton, New York, NY
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Second up… gypsy/folk quartet Fishtank Ensemble has their new CD out, Woman in Sin. They played songs from it when I saw them at a Eugene house show in early March. Great tunes!! They’re on a mini-California CD release tour right now…
(click to order)
May 12 – Berkeley, CA – Freight and Salvage
May 13 – Arcata CA – Arcata Playhouse
May 14 – Nevada City – North Columbia Schoolhouse
May 15 – Point Arena, CA – Arena Theatre
May 16 – Sebastopol, CA – Hopmonk Tavern
May 18 – Sacramento, CA – Firehouse 5
May 19 – Santa Cruz, CA – Moes Alley
May 21 – Briceland – Octagon at Beginnings
May 23 – San Louis Obispo – Cal Poly Performing Arts Center
May 29 – Claremont, CA – Folk Music Center
May 30 – Irvine, CA – Lightning in a Bottle Festival
http://www.fishtankensemble.com/
~Dan – Kaki King – Junior
<prelim.oh.seven.fav.list>
Well, my 17-day vacation/ holiday break/ hustle-and-rent-the-house-2,600-miles-away trip went well… alas, my oft “too time consuming” year-end list of all that is fantastic to my ears is not done/barely started.
Now that I’ll be back to school, I’ll have some time to re-listen to my 2007 music. Expect something in mid-to-late January (perhaps). In the meantime, for those that care (all 2 of you)… here are some preliminary choice tunes from last year (in no particular order, except for likely the 1st two):
2. Radiohead – In Rainbows
Wussy – Left for Dead
Ken Andrews (from Failure/On/Year of the Rabbit) – Secrets of the Lost Satellite
Puscifer (Maynard from Tool) – V is For Vagina
Elliott Smith – New Moon
Antibalas – Security
Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Hiromi – Time Control
Holy Fuck – Holy Fuck LP2
Marc Ribot – Masada Book Two: Book of Angels, Vol. 7 (Asmodeus)
John Zorn – Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
Dave Douglas & Keystone – Moonshine
The Lithuanian Empire – The Lithuanian Empire
The full “Top ??” list will be jam-packed with more info, pictures, and links than you cared to know about said artists… as I would have it no. other. way.
~Dan – np: Gaston Zirko‘s experimental music on myspace
Favorite Concerts of 2007
Well, there are still some 2007 CDs that may or may not arrive in my hands before the year’s over (specifically Eyvind Kang, Dave Douglas, Greydon Square, Radiohead, Doug Pinnick & La Mar Enfortuna — all of which have Top 20 potential); so I’m not ready to post my “Best CDs of 2007” list, yet. Look for that one sometime in early 2008…
This blog is for my favorite concerts of 2007. I went to too many to recount in detail, but these are the tip-top ones…
- Music Now Festival 2007 (Pedro Soler, Bryce Dessner, David Cossin, the Clogs, the Havels, Osso, Amiina, My Brightest Diamond, Sufjan Stevens) at the Memorial Hall, Cincinnati-OH (4/5/07 to 4/7/07) my review
- Masada (John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron) at the Rose Theatre at the Lincoln Center, New York-NY (3/10/07) my review
- Nellie McKay at the Shedd Institute, Eugene-OR (10/5/07) my review
- Silverchair at the Fillmore @ the TLA, Philadelphia-PA (7/28/07) review snippet
- Secret Chiefs 3 at the Bowery Ballroom, New York-NY (3/15/07) my review
- John Zorn’s Moonchild (Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, Joey Baron) at the Moore Theatre, Seattle-WA (11/4/07) my review
- Holy Fuck at the Southgate House, Newport-KY (4/1/07) my review
- Antibalas at the Southgate House, Newport-KY (4/29/07) review snippet
- Noctaluca at the Taste of Cincinnati, Cincinnati-OH (5/28/07)
- Blackfield (Steven Wilson & Aviv Geffen) at the Bowery Ballroom, New York-NY (3/16/07) my review
OK, I guess I’ve still got coming up in 2007 Iron & Wine in Portland (12/2) and maybe David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) in Eugene (12/14); but the above concerts were my favorites of 2007…
Happy thanksgiving, yo! One thing I’m thankful for is definitely music… :-)
~Dan – np: npr jazz profiles (podcast) – duke ellington: the bandleader, pt. 1
12/24 Update: wow… I totally forgot the kick ass Zappa Plays Zappa show at Moonlite Gardens in Cincinnati, OH on 7/24/07. I think I forgot because I didn’t blog about it when it happened (gettin’ ready to quit my job and pack up and head west at the time)… but now reading this week’s CityBeat, tons of people listed it as a favorite, and man, I was at that show, too… Dweezil = awesomes! Ray White = awesomes! Frank on a big screen behind the band, singing and soloing with the live band = awesomes! 2nd time seeing the ZPZ tour in 2 years (completely different setlist, too). I think it needs to be a once-a-year thing… in perpetuity.
REVIEW: Ellery, CSO, Antibalas (Cincinnati – – late April 2007)
Great three-concert weekend… Ellery/Over the Rhine on Friday, Paavi Järvi’s CSO with Alison Balsom on Saturday, and freakin’ ANTIBALAS on Sunday. Wow… I don’t mean to sound bitchy, but Over the Rhine was the lowlight of the weekend. I think I’m done seeing them live for a long time. So, yeah, you won’t hear me bitching about how bored I was anymore. I think I’ll set my self-imposed boycott at 4 years, and see how I do. 
I might sneak a Taft show in or a Portland show in… but I’m definitely/officially on the bubble these days for their live shows. Eh. It was a good run.
Anyway, Ellery… great stuff. Can’t wait for a follow-up album… Tasha’s got a great voice. This was my 9th time seeing them… and it doesn’t drag. Great songs, great music. I’ll miss them when we move to Oregon. Maybe they’ll have to come out and do some label showcase shows for their Seattle-based Virt Records. As for Over the Rhine, I liked some of their newer songs… but left after/during “Ohio.”
M & I saw the CSO with guest pianist Hélène Grimaud in the spring. I enjoyed it, but the piano didn’t seem to work as well (and Margarita was bored, to say the least). This show with solo trumpet, though… it was fantastic. The Paavi Järvi-led Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra played SIBELIUS’s Night Ride and Sunrise, then solo trumpeter from the UK Alison Balsom came out for HAYDN’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major. It popped, and the symphony and solo trumpet really meshed. Also impressive was the way she was belting out the notes while wearing a quite elegant and long evening gown. After the intermission, Paavo led the CSO through SIBELIUS’s The Bard and SCHUMANN’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor. Fantastic evening… including dark chocolate pretzels from Divine’s at the show… mmm…. oh, and a veggie phillycheese from Northside’s Melt to start the evening off anyway…. mmm… Hail Seitan!
Last night was Antibalas (aka Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra). Wow. They’re an 11-piece band from NYC… maybe like an east-coast Ozomatli, but instead of the Latin feel, they’ve got the Nigerian thing going on. They’re similar to Ozo in that they’re also very funky, dancable, and political-infused. They went on around 10:15 and M & I ended up bouncing and dancing with some friends until we had to call it quits around 12:15am while they were wrapping up their last pre-encore song. Of the 2 hours, they probably played 6-8 songs… 
Very groove oriented and some fantastic solos by all members… they had a keyboardist, congo-player/singer, 2 guitarists, a bassist, a gourd/percussionist, a drummer, 2 trumpeters, and 2 saxaphonists (1 alto, 1 baritone). Fun evening… the main singer’s shirt was also quite spiffy.
~Dan
-Eyvind Kang
-Frank Zappa
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