Michael Franti - Live at theChapel

Thu 21st Sep, 2006 in Gig Reviews

The feelings that consumed me when watching Michael Franti perform tonight were all based around this kind of Zen-like enlightenment, euphoric, all encompassing love for your fellow man type of bag. This was as intimate and as up close and personal as it gets with the big Californian with social justice running through his veins, as he treated the Live at the Chapel crew to something quite extraordinary and very moving indeed.

Walking onstage with candles hanging low and burning bright, there was this real intense heat coming from the room, as the trademark barefooted Franti strolled on and greeted the audience with the line, “Welcome to church,” before releasing the band and the Spearhead sound well into the night. Armed initially with an acoustic guitar, Franti would soon cross to electric and then back again. “I remember a time when you didn’t have to plug these (acoustics) in!” he says, as his dreads became entangled through the strings. “I’m having a bad hair day!” quipped Franti, before chrome domed bass guitarist Carl Young fires back, full of wit, “Me too!”

This warm and free flowing banter would set up what turned out to be one enchanted evening with Franti moving between material from Stay Human, Everyone Deserves Music, Songs From The Front Porch and fresh material born from his socio/political documentary, I Know I’m Not Alone.  This doco found Franti venturing into Iraq, Palestine and Israel and exploring life in war torn villages, listening to stories from the people, and wondering why peace in the world is so difficult to achieve.

Franti and Spearhead played an inspired set for the lucky bunch who scored tickets to this most joyous event and I found myself being moved on many separate occasions â€” the songs and delivery would move not only my heart, but my soul, my body, and my entire being as a matter of fact â€” a truly spiritual occasion to be a part of.  I remember the crisp and clean production of the show, from the Spearhead rhythm section of Young and drummer extraordinaire Manas Itene, who produced something special behind the skins with some quality beats, brush strokes and vocal back up harmonies to Franti.

The guitar display put on by Dave Shul was second to none, and complemented Franti’s heartfelt vocal delivery with elements or rather fusions of folk, jazz, rock and hip-hop oozing from Shul’s Stratocaster, as he pulled out the stops for a more than appreciative audience of Franti fanatics. The band went on to play hits Everyone Deserves Music, Stay Human (All the Freaky People), Oh My God and Sometimes, with East to the West and Hello Bonjour involving the audience with some hypnotic sing-alongs. Bomb the World once again instilled the message of hope and peace and reaffirmed the beauty and poignancy of Franti’s work within the fields of both music and politics â€” solutions are possible if we all just listen to one another, act together to resolve problems, act instead of react … man it’s a sad world to miss such a simple message. 

The most moving part of the night would come when Franti sat himself back down on the stool, and proceeded to tell of his experiences in the Middle East, and in particular of the relationship he had forged with an American woman who drove all across the US to raise over 22 million dollars, which would go towards rehabilitation in the most effected areas of the Middle East. She was killed in a car bomb not long ago and this was Franti paying his respect to her through song, with the ode, One Step Closer to You, pulled from the latest record, Yell Fire.

What struck me most was the expressiveness of the vocal and the resulting effect it had on me with the goose bumps rising and the lump in the throat bulging … a totally mesmerising gig by a real hero in the fight for the rights of social reform and equality in a world spiralling out of control with all its man-made madness and mayhem.