Luaka Bop presents Atomic Bomb! The Music of William Onyeabor
featuring Sinkane with David Byrne, Joshua Redman, et al
2014-05-06
the Warfield
982 Market Street, San Francisco, CA
8:00 PM, Tuesday, May 6, 2014

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[8:25 PM lights down, brief exhortations from Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church]

1. [8:28 PM] ? Body & Soul (core band) (AG) »
2. [8:35 PM +add perc, t drum, horns] ? Why Go to War (AG)
3. [8:45 PM +AT] Good Name (AG/AT)
4. [8:55 PM +Lijadu Sisters] Atomic Bomb (AT/KL/TL)
5. [9:03 PM +DB, -horns] Love Me Now (DB)
6. [9:09 PM +KO, -Lijadu Sisters, +horns] Heaven and Hell (KO)
7. [9:19 PM -KO, +Lijadu Sisters] Danger (KL/TL)
8. [9:26 PM] ? Lies -or- Life’s Gone Down Low (KL/TL)
9. [9:31 PM] Fantastic Man (DB)
10. [9:38 PM +KO] Love Is Blind (KO)
    [set ends 9:46 PM; back onstage 9:48 PM]
     
    Encore
11. [9:49 PM] Better Change Your Mind (DB/KO/AG)
12. [9:57 PM +KO +Lijadu Sisters] When the Going Is Smooth & Good (all) ^
    [show ends 10:07 PM; group bows, then all off after 10:09 PM]

• Lekan Babalola AKA Lawyer Onyeabor: percussion;
• David Byrne AKA Willy Onyeabor: guitar, lead and harmony vox;
• Ahmed Gallab AKA Sinkane AKA Justice Onyeabor: keyboards, lead and harmony vox, musical co-director;
• Kofo the Wonderman: talking drum;
• Jonny Lam AKA Internet Cafe Owner Onyeabor: guitar, ^ keyboards;
• Kehinde Lijadu AKA Priestess: lead and harmony vox;
• Taiwo Lijadu AKA Priestess: lead and harmony vox;
• Pat Mahoney AKA Importer Onyeabor: drums;
• Jordan McLean AKA Exporter Onyeabor: trumpet;
• Ish Montgomery AKA Industirialist Onyeabor: bass;
• Money Mark AKA Mark Ramos-Nishita AKA Film Maker Onyeabor: keyboards, harmony vox, musical co-director;
• Kelechukwu "Kele" Rowland Okereke AKA High Chief Onyeabor: lead and harmony vox;
• Joshua Redman AKA Executive Onyeabor: tenor saxophone, harmony vox;
• Alexis Taylor AKA Bill Onyeabor: keyboards, lead and harmony vox;
• Jason “Jay Tram” Tramell AKA Miller Onyeabor: drums.
• James Walton AKA Wayo Onyeabor: tenor saxophone.

After squeezing as much work as possible into the afternoon, I pack myself up and race across town, coasting down Golden Gate to the last block before Market street, where my parking spot lay, just waiting for me to arrive and cover it up. So I park, grab my gear, and then walk by the Theatre around 6:30 PM, looking for Ting, and noting that the crowd assembled and waiting to head inside is looking kinda thin. Ting arrives shortly thereafter and we loop around the block, heading first towards Tu Lan, but then decide that Westfield would be better for just hanging out (and not eating, since we're not hungry enough for a full dinner). A few minutes later, we're in the west-side food court in the basement at Westfield, and, boy, do all those treats on display look yummy! We decide to snack and share a tasty pesto chicken crepe (augmented by a chocolate-dipped cookie for me), yum! Around 7:20, we pack back up and walk through the underground MUNI/BART metro area in order to pop out on the north side of Market and complete the loop of our stroll. A few more steps, a short pause for a marquee picture, another pause for search and scan, and then we're inside. Yeah!

The place is strangely empty 30 min before the show. Upstairs, the staff still outnumber the patrons, while down on the floor, there are less than a score of folks lined up at the rail or on the front of the first step. Strange! Little by little, the crowd files in, and by nominal showtime (8 PM), they fill up about half of the space in this place. We veg awhile talking and frittering away the time, and eventually, the lights are dimmed: showtime!!

The show begins with a few minutes of preaching from an unidentified clergyman. The program handed out at the door includes a credit to the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, hinting that the preacher might be Franzo King, but he appears too heavy-set for me to agree with that identification, and he's not carrying or playing a saxophone either. My guess is that it's Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church instead. Unfortunately, Ting was caught by surprise, and was unable to get any clear shots at this point in the proceedings, so we won't know who it was unless the information pops up somewhere else. [David Byrne's blog post the next day verified that it was indeed Cecil Williams.] Anyways, the curtains are opened while the preacher is winding down his brief peace-and-love-one-another sermon, revealing Money Mark and the core band, Sinkane, onstage: Ahmed and Money Mark in the center, Pat and Jay in their trap sets on risers directly behind the two keyboard rigs, and Ish and Jonny off a little to stage left.

The show gets off to a solid start with a one-two punch segueing the opener, Body & Soul into Why Go to War. Money Mark seems to be in particularly high spirits, bouncing gleefully up and down to the beat and shouting his harmonies with Dionysian abandon. After a brief pause, the guest percussionists and horn section join the party for the third tune, and midway through, AT runs out to take over lead vocal duties from AG. Adding more players allows for considerably more complexity in the sound palette, and the horn section is a particularly welcome addition, as the organic wind sounds make a good balance against the fat synthesizer lines of the three keyboardists manning the front line.

The mysterious Lijadu Sisters are the next addition to the company, though on this first appearance they keep to background vox while AT sings lead. Happily (what took so long?), DB is the next guest, singing lead on Love Me Now before heading back to play rhythm guitar for the rest of the show. At the conclusion of this tune, the Lijadu Sisters depart, but making his first appearance is Kele, singing lead on Heaven and Hell. As with other tunes, the band riffs furiously, piling up wave upon wave of musical texture. The pit below us is completely packed, filled with a joyously bopping mob of dancers, swaying, swirling and pogoing up and down to the hypnotic beats of Onyeabor's tune.

When the Lijadu sisters return, they are clad in more formal green outfits that give a strange, ghostly white tint to their faces. They take up lead vocals, first on Danger (an Onyeabor tune?), then on Lies (the only tune not written by Onyeabor performed tonight?). It's fun, but not quite as trancey as the earlier tunes, and I'm happy to see DB step up in his fluorescent orange hat to sing lead on the next tune Fantastic Man. Kele follows as lead on Love Is Blind, and with that, the set is over. Too soon! Too soon!

The encores are performed with wild, passionate abandon. Money Mark is back to doing the pogo, waving a Casio keyboard like a flag, and dancing on a folding chair he's pulled out from side stage in order to exhort us all to get a little higher. Joshua Redman peels off another monster horn solo, squawking and keening from the bottom of the tenor register to the very top, aiming to reach the notes way above the staff. Jonny has taken to shooting pictures of the crowd in between guitar licks, while Ish maintains a bubbly rumble on the bass, laying down an irresistible command to dance. At this point, even the usually distracted VIPs in center loge are dancing, as the balcony becomes a quivering, ecstatic single-minded entity: higher! higher! higher!

All too soon the proceedings crash to a halt. We are sad! It's strangely early, and no one wants to go home, but the house lights come up as soon as the band completes their final bows, while the mellow voice of Frank Sinatra encourages us to dance out into the night.

Thanks to Roy Trakin for posting a setlist in his review of the apparently identical show from the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on May 8.

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