FEMI KUTI & THE POSITIVE FORCE at the Opera House, Wednesday (July 3). Rating: NNNN
Filing onto the Opera House stage at 9:20 pm – percussion first, followed by a brass section with coordinated dance moves, a trio of female dancers and, finally, the Afrobeat master himself – Femi Kuti & the Positive Force launched into a crashing instrumental number that saw Kuti jump from keys to sax where he held down a note for minutes – circular breathing while his veins popped, cheeks bulged and everyone jammed around him.
At 51, Kuti has the moves of a man half his age – part b-boy, part boxer bouncing on his toes, part Carlton Banks side shimmy, part traditional Nigerian rhythm that seems to emanate from deep within – performing them all while appearing to conduct his band or cast a spell over them with swooping hand movements.
When he wasn’t dancing or on the keys, he was playing the sax, and his brass chops – honed in the 70s and 80s while playing with his father, Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti – turned the crowd from rammed-in bobbing mass to wide-eyed gawkers.
Leaving the stage before 11 pm, the Positive Force reemerged for a massive encore including Nothing To Show For It from his latest album, No Place For My Dream, and the slower burning Day By Day from the 2008 album of the same title. He finished with a sweat-soaked Dashiki and a marathon version of his 1998 Beng Beng Beng, proving that Femi and his troupe are a force to be reckoned with.
