The month of November was packed with goodness here at Messiah. First up was Chicago reggae outfit The Drastics with frequent collaborator Fada Dougou. They began the set with a short instrumental set before Dougou joined them onstage to add vocals to the guitars, horns, and electronics that got the party started. The diversity of reggae-based styles the band is able to play is amazing-from dub to ska and everything in between. Fada's lyrics, both written and improvised, kept a positive vibe going throughout as we danced late into the night. The track they are performing in this video has become a regular on The Fox and the Hound Show and in our live sets:
Reminding us that b-sides is not just a weekly dance party, singer-songwriter Griffin House brought his smoldering bluesy folk to us the following week. The ladies were enthralled and the gentlemen sufficiently entertained as well. Enough description from me-this tune is sure to find its way onto a mixtape for my girlfriend Ashley soon enough, and captures the atmosphere fairly well:
The party was not to be stopped, however, and Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang were the next act to charm both eyes and ears in Larsen Student Union. Complex polyrhythms kept all but the hardcore few from the dancefloor, but rewarded those of us that persisted with a virtually unstoppably energetic interactive performance from the aging patriarch of Bubu music. Janka Nabay was a star in war-torn Sierra Leone before run-ins with both rebel and government forces forced him to emigrate to the United States, where he hooked up with Ohio-by-way-of-NYC Afrobeat collective Skeletons, lending them some African street cred and appropriating their instruments into his "Bubu Gang". Attempting to replicate the sounds of an ancient Ramadan processional with Western instrumentation cannot be easy, but the Gang seems to do fairly well judging by the exuberance of their semi-traditionalist frontman. Nabay's enthusiasm is infectious, and hopefully he will continue sharing his beloved Bubu instead of my beloved Crown fried chicken as he did in Philly before finding his way into the Brooklyn music scene.
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