Femi Kuti does LA

Yeeeeeaaaaah!!!!!!!!!
I can still hear him, ringing in my ears, 5 days later.
The crazy frat boy who stood behind me at the Femi Kuti performance last weekend, yelling at the end of every song.


I can still see her too.
The woman who harbored fantasies of joining Femi's dancers on stage.
Not sure what the attraction was, the rhythm? the live performance? or just Femi.


Him I particularly remember.
An older fellow, likely African American, he gently swayed to all the songs played except one.
"Bang, Bang, Bang", it brought out the animal in him.


"Somebody was definitely getting it that night".


Frat boy was obviously on something, not sure what, alcohol was the intoxicant of choice for most. Or maybe his yelling was just my punishment for setting my watch to CPT. Quite a number of Fela's adherents were at the show too, as evidenced by some whiffs of mary jane . I did also spot a couple of older yellow, green and red clad Rastafarians.


The woman with the dancing fantasy, she was hyper throughout and would obviously rather have been on stage. I'm not sure I would have appreciated it. Effort she had, rhythm .... err not quite. Me definitely would not have appreciated, his fantasies involved only Femi's dancers. They had rhythm, and the assets to demonstrate it. Any pacemakers in that room must have worked overtime.


The oldie in the Fedora, definitely didn't want a heart attack, hence him saving his energy for "Bang Bang Bang". It was one of the songs at the crescendo of the performance. Femi took the opportunity to dispense some sexual knowledge, the randy LA folks cheered all the way, quite a contrast from the political philosophy he had earlier attempted that received an unusual ovation.



A good time is what everyone wanted and that they got. Femi kept the half-and-half crowd in a frenzy with his keyboard and sax, sounding hauntingly like his dad. Even the drummers got caught up, losing their sticks and joining the dancers while the horns were blazing. The 9ja-starved Nigerians in the crowd dug out moves from their "palmy"-driven gyrations in college, the Non-Nigerians trying to out do them.


"Ha, an Afrobeat dance-off on Sunset strip".


An attempt to end the performance was rebuffed by the crowd's continued ovation and catcalls. The show continued with some music from his unreleased album and eventually ended with a cover of "Water No Get Enemy" which got an animated response from the crowd recognizing one from the master himself.


Good show no doubt and a few things were obvious, "Shoki Shoki" from 1999 remains his most popular album. Femi's face while he's on the keyboards looks like he's taking a dump, you know that last little bit you squeeze....


"Wetin now, I dey chop for here".


The Nigerians were not the most hyper group in the house. Maybe we don't have an appreciation of what's ours? Or maybe we weren't just as intoxicated? Odds are we were just in better rhythm. Now as I actively add Femi to my Fela collection I'm left with the memory of yeeeeeaaaaah!!!!!!!! and those dancers.


More photos by Matthew Fleischer and Mel Schwartz