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I checked out Femi Kuti at the Metro on Saturday. That was a hoooooot show. Here’s a synopsis of the artists the Metro had on their website:

Metro is very pleased to welcome Femi Kuti back to the Metro stage on Saturday, July 9th. Femi Kuti, son of Nigerian Afro-beat superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Femi is the undisputed inheritor of his father’s genius, talent, and unofficial ambassadorship of Afro-beat to the world.

Femi’s version of Afro-beat is the most exciting new sound to emerge from Nigeria in years, borrowing the best elements of his father’s powerfully polyrhythmic prototype: a funky, jazzy, heavily percussive sound that took James Brown’s beat back to Africa. Femi adds to that winning formula the freshness and exuberance of young Lagos and its taste for the new R&B and dance music of American and Europe, in addition to his sharply critical political commentary.

While Nigeria’s military dictatorship fell in 1998, Femi continues to speak out in the name of all Nigerians, and all Africans, motivated by the new freedom of expression in his country. With Femi Kuti, music asserts itself anew as the revolutionary force of the future and of pan-Africanism, proving to all time and again that music does have a meaning. His latest, “Best of Femi Kuti” was released on Universal’s International label in January, and he will release an unprecedented CD/DVD collection “Live At The Shrine” on June 28th.

He had like a twelve-piece band on stage with him: a drummer, a basist, a guitarists, a bongo player, a keyboardists, a three-person horn section, he was switching between singing, keyboards, an alto and tenor saxophone and a trumpet, a there were three other female back up singers/dancers on stage. CRAZY. While he was singing, his music was this crazy-beat type stuff with horns and drums just slamming you the whole time. But then while he was soloing on one of his instrument, or when someone from the horn section or the guitarist came front and center to solo, all the background music would mellow out a bit and turn into the jazzy kinda vibe. It was a tight show. Packed and HOT.

The sound that night was kinda bad though, his lyrics were all muffled in with the rest of the sound, and I really couldn’t understand what he was saying… worthless.