Based on a rough straw poll taken before the gig (i.e I spoke to three people) the audience for Friday night’s show in the Savoy in Cork was split into three groups; those who knew all about Damon Albarn’s latest side project, those who hadn’t a clue what to expect but had faith in the line-up delivering something special and finally those who were half hoping for a Blur gig with some Red Hot Chilli Peppers touches thrown in by Flea on the bass.
Which is all to say that this had the potential to go very wrong. An audience with completely different expectations for the night, collectively hearing something for the first time. Half the joy of this gig came from the fact that this step into the unknown for artists and audience was so effortlessly enjoyable.
Albarn strolls onto stage with that half-embarrassed, half-arrogant grin of his and takes a seat behind a synth at the back of the stage, Flea and legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen join him to a good reception and finally the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble file in and the place is an instant feel-good party. Having been disappointed by the Chicago siblings (and Father) at Electric Picnic last year this was a revelation, maybe the setting (the old cinema on Cork’s Patrick Street is a great venue) or the simple but precise beats provided by Messrs Albarn and Allen, but these guys lived up to the hypnotic part of their name in style.
The show settles into routine of brass number followed by singing, brass number then singing. Fatoumata Diawara, a Malian musician, takes on the majority of the vocal duties and she does so with panache. With so much happening on stage it would be easy to be diminished but all eyes are on Diawara for best part of the show. Ghanaian rapper M.anifest ably steps into the breach from time to time to get the crowd involved and arguably deserved a little more stage time. But with so much happening on stage it’s understandable that there’s plenty of squad rotation on stage, not the Man City of super groups but close. Cheick Tidiane Seck chips in on keyboard and delivers vocals for one track in a conversational, ‘come here til I tell you’ style.
And just when you think you’ve seen the whole gang along comes Nozinja complete with South Africa’s answer to Bez, to demonstrate the sheer fun of Shangaan Electro. Like, presumably, the majority of the audience Shangaan Electro is something that had escaped my radar until a Google search post-show. For a genre of music to grab you so unexpectedly by the collar was the final treat of the evening. Google it now yourself, though a video won’t communicate just how much fun it is to watch in person.
There’s that word again; fun. It can seem to damn with faint praise. A curled smile on the lips and declaring in the iciest tones possible “That was…fun.” But it was. And it was unexpected and memorable. In the end Damon Albarn and Flea’s participation seemed almost incidental, nice to see them in the flesh but Flea was just a guest star and Albarn a facilitator.
It’s easy to be dismissive of all of Albarn’s side projects, hard to keep track of and hard to believe that it is all good. But it’s worth it. He’s used his cache to bring together musicians he knows we should hear. Musicians that won’t show up on our radar because for all the music we listen to we can still be very narrow in our tastes. Many people may be smart enough to seek out new sounds from around the world themselves. For the rest of us it’s good to have Albarn expanding our knowledge a little bit. Catch the Dublin show if you can.