fueling the revolution
the Antibalas and Transmission show last night at the Fillmore was phenomenal. of course, jay and shannon and i got our kicks before the show even STARTED just knowing transmission was opening up. the fillmore was pretty empty at 8:00 when tmission started playing, but with a good number of the “hardcore” tmission fans there and ready and excited. and, being the sweet guys that they are, they walked out and said “this one’s for jay and amy” and went right into Hoover Dam, one of our favorite tunes of theirs. they even wrote a setlist for the show (which i guess they only do for really *special* occasions… haha) because they only had about 45 minutes to play. that of course left out most of the improv, which is what they do best, but they still sounded great. so if you’re reading this boys, GREAT JOB!! we’re so proud 
on to antibalas. outside of the fact that the whole 12 member band is really TIGHT and they’ve really come together as a group in the past year, i have to add that Antibalas’ message is SO IMPORTANT!!!! my antibalas t-shirt that i got last spring in NYC (may 2001) has this quote on the back:
“In a time of universal deceit, to tell the truth is a revolutionary act.” — george orwell.
of course, after 9/11, this is even more true than it was when i bought the shirt. Antibalas (literally: anti- bullets) has a combined message of both the fact that so much important information is being silenced in the world by those in power, that we are often all political prisoners because of the media and our governments, along with the message that in order to respond to that oppression, we need to speak out, but with dignity, humanity, and global non-violence, not with war. every single one of their songs urges community and respect. it’s so good to have bands out there who aren’t afraid to stand up and actually SAY what they are fighting for instead of so many bands who just allude to their “good works” but never really take a stand in public. i did notice a lot of silence on the part of the crowd when the band introduced songs and talked about things like blood, bodies, war, killing, global corruption and crime. the silence of the crowd, to me, just reiterated the message: that we all, for whatever reason, feel we should be silent and not speak out against what is happening. i wished more people at the show would have made some noise and showed their support instead of standing there silently.
it’s so amazing to me that the music, even without words, is so calming. the smooth, fluid afro-cuban rhythms are so inspiring in themselves and move the body in such a healing way (much like indian music is for me); towards the end of the night when i was getting tired, i was just smiling about the fact that i could just stand there and the music just FLOWED over me in such a beautiful, full, warm way, that even though it’s hard to understand their spoken words sometimes it doesnt matter because you felt what they were trying to say…. it just makes my heart glow.
Leave a Reply
