At 9:50pm, Michael Franti and Spearhead started with Michael
jumping into his famous poet stuff.....the song was "Fire One". The
group did the Earth, Wind & Fire style song called "Oh My God" (recall
the EWF song "Devotion") and the funky, pulsating bass track "On
and On" (I think that's the song title).....which featured Michael on
acoustic guitar and a serious lead guitar solo!! The keyboard solo was
beautiful on "Every Little Soul is a Poem".....I love the way Michael
dances about during the breakdown!! "Stay Human (All the Freaky
People)" got the audience off big time with its funkiness.....solos from
the guitarist, bassist and keyboardist were superb and the second vocalist, Radio,
did some horn riffs with his voice.....he even began to sing in a very deep
register (a la Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong)! Then, it was time to
things to settle down with a positive message......I think it's called
"Don't Be Afraid", followed by another song which had a funky
Afrocentric rhythm to it. "We Don't Mind" was good, and was followed
by a song about the over-security of our country post-9/11/01.....Michael says,
"There is freedom in vulnerability!" Radio had a beatbox spotlight,
which led to the crowd-pleasing, rump-shakin' funk-hop track, Rock The
Nation....the drummer rocked B.B. King's and the lyrics were
"damn-right" powerful!! "Soul Shine" was very good, but I
had to leave at 11:40pm to see the NYC rock band, Funkface.
Submit suggestions or comments to david.brooks@brookenstein.com