Michael Franti & Spearhead,The Winnie Coopers, DJ NickToth @ ANU, Canberra,(20/10/08)

Tue 21st Oct, 2008 in Gig Reviews

If you look up genius in the dictionary it will probably say that it is a person who is incredibly smart in a variety of ways whether it is academically, emotionally, professionally or spiritually. Cue Michael Franti, he is all of these qualities and more. Add to that list musical intelligence. He may be the only person in the world who can blend elements of reggae, funk, hip-hop, soul, jazz, folk, and rock into one hell of a style of music.

However before punters got the pleasure of witnessing all that is Mr Franti, renown Sydney DJ Nick Toth kept everyone in bearable anticipation with his desirable hip hop, reggae and funk tunes which had no one complaining.

Shortly following on from DJ Toth were popular Aussie hip hop act The Winnie Coopers who belted out an impressive energetic performance. One way to describe them would be: if you were baking a cake with the hip hop sweetness and rhymes of The Herd and Illzilla and had the energy, rawness and enthusiasm of Rage Against the Machine as icing on top. On the flip side of the coin, if you were to shut your eyes and block out the reggae elements in their music, you could mistake them for The Herd. But as the Winnies are from the Gold Coast they have added the reggae tunes to back up the hip hop elements to make their sound recognisable as happy, sunny beach tunes you would hear on the Sunshine coast.

Next on the list to delight the stage was Jamaican songstress Cherine Anderson. She immediately drew in the punters up to the stage as a result of her outstanding vocal range which was delightfully accompanied by the reggae sounding bass and drums. She admitted that one of her missions to complete while in Australia was to teach an Aussie boy to dance like a Jamaican one. And what do you know, in a flash the gate separating the stage from the audience was almost knocked down with volunteers to be a student of the Jamaican beauty. She chose a punter named Jack who may have had some lessons prior to this one but none the less passed with flying colours and was having the time of his life.

It is unclear whether Ms Anderson was a magician in a past life because as soon as she asked the crowd to yell Michael Franti & Spearhead at the top of their lungs they soon appeared on stage.

In a flash the whole population of the ANU rushed over to witness one of the world’s best entertainers. Punters were more than willing to act like dogs and respond to what Mr Franti asked which was usually “I want everyone to start jumping” or “Everyone dance like this” and you guessed it they did so straight away.

To the sheer delight of his fans he altered the lyrics in Rude Boys Back in Town and added in Canberra references instead, e.g. “I jump across to Byron, Alice Springs (which are the actual lyrics), and down to Canberra (instead of Cape Town)

Half way through his set he was starting to strip back the layers, as it was heating up to a cooking like temperature in an oven, to a singlet and jeans. As many fans would know, Michael Franti has not worn shoes in 8 years. It was originally only for 3 days as part of an anti-poverty protest in 2000 but he hasn’t worn anything since.

If one were to tally all of the political references in his songs, the dashes would be likely to spill over to two or three pages. It just truly shows how dedicated he is in his political activism for social and political issues. As mentioned in a recent Fasterlouder feature, he has become a renown musical figure like U2’s Bono that believes that we can make the world a better place.

After dedicating most of your adult life in doing so you would hope that your fans would be doing just that. Thankfully to Franti’s relief punters are, as I witnessed a good few purchasing the political stickers and badges at the merchandise desk including the Stop Racism and Clean Coal stickers.

With tickets at $55.50 punters would expect one hell of a show, and Michael Franti sure gave it to us. He gave a two and a half hour set, danced around the stage endlessly all night, continuously voiced his love of Australia, which is a true love as he has toured here several times and even came out to the audience to hug, kiss, shake hands and dance with his loyal fans.

For those of you who missed out, you have my true sympathy!