BOOGAT and PIERRE KWENDERS at the Drake Underground, Thursday, October 2. Rating: NNN
“World” is a funny genre name. While it embodies seemingly endless musical styles, it doesn’t always convey youth and hipness. Thursday night’s Small World Music Festival show at the Drake, however, proved the tag is really just a catch-all for anything we don’t quite know how to categorize.
Take headliner Boogat. Heralded onstage by raw, gorgeous trombone playing, the Franco-Canadian showcased his latin-flavoured hip-hop – rapped in Spanish, natch.
I was most impressed by intimidatingly stylish opener Pierre Kwenders, though, making his Toronto debut. A decent crowd had gathered for the francophone artist, but they were sticking to the sides of the room (how very Toronto, the Montrealer must have thought). Without too much trouble, he coerced them onto the dancefloor with his fresh mix of Afrobeat, electro, Congolese rumba (he originates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and hip-hop. His drummer boomed away on pair of conga drums, a laptop subbed in samples like twinkly piano and Kwenders’ vocals echoed with just the right amount of reverb (unlike Boogat, who kinda went overboard).
By the end, we were all converts to “PK Nation.”
Small World Music Festival runs until October 5.
