Femi Kuti And The Positive Force
@ Shinjuku Liquid Room(14th Apr '00)
Old Fela's Son Shines Bright
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When the Liquid Room in Tokyo opened to an enthusiastic yet two-thirds capacity crowd gathered for Femi Kuti, I wondered to myself, "Why?" Was it that, like a local Shinjuku retailer who had lured me into his shop recently by blasting old man Fela's African grooves at full tilt onto the street, Tokyo simply didn't know he existed? Or was it that, as more than one person I had spoken to prior to the gig had suggested, most punters felt they had been-there-and-done-that by having already seen him at last year's Fuji Rock Festival? The truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere in between.
While it is certainly true to say that Fuji Rock was the perfect setting to experience the fullness of Femi's larger-than-life music, with more than a dozen members up on stage jamming and skanking and shaking their"nyashi," I felt sorry for those Tokyo fans who missed this opportunity to meet him virtually one-on-one in the comparitively intimate and therefore more engaging confines of the Liquid Room. Communication was direct, the vibe right up and in your face and everyone was dancing -the latter being the upside of a not-so-crowded venue. We had room to move.
Not only is Femi's music larger than life, it is also phat with influences. Just as he must have fought to carry on his father's message by leading his band through the dark years of his imprisonment by the Nigerian government, musical genres must have fought for attention and reconciliation as he developed his own inspiration as an artist. It wasn't until 9 years after his father's release in 1986 that he debuted with his first album, Tabu - almost a decade of assimilation and growth. The Positive Force has been with him since his second recording in 1996, bearing their name.
After an hour and a half, it was Femi who finally asked the crowd whether they were tired. One sensed that the gig, as with his musical career, had only just begun...
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report by sisterchill and photos by hanasan
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