Antibalas

This past Friday, June 4th, I had the pleasure of seeing Antiblas at the Black Cat. I have been a fan of Fela Kuti for a long time and Antiblas is one of the few live Afrobeat groups I have heard of in the US. I happened to run into Duke Amayo, their lead singer, at Zinc Bar before the monthly Jump & Funk set currently housed at the Coral Room and was very impressed. I must say that while the crowd wasn't as into it as they could have been and I didn't feel that the group really got into their stride until late in the concert, their new material and their Fela covers are pretty on point. I would give their new "Who Is This America?" album a 3; it is great to hear Fela's political spirit re-incarnated on songs like "Who Is This America Dem Speak Of Today" and "Indictment".