Novalima @ Lion D'Or

By Stefan and Driij - Pan African Hour - 07/21/2009

Driij: I scarfed down a gyro pita as fast as I could as I heard the sounds of a band warming up inside Lion D’or.

Stefan: I watched impatiently as he scarfed that nasty gyro. The freakin band is starting!

D: I apologized with oniony breath as we made our way inside. "We’re from CJLO," we said to the doorman, in a gangster pose.

S: ...I was actually the one who talked to the doorman, but anyways, we got into the venue and the band had begun to play their hippy/trippy intro, complete with cow jaw-bone shaker.

D: An ambient intro, soft murmuring sounds, but slowly the band raised the tempo, and broke into Afro-Cuban funkiness.

S: Yes, yes, said we, but the audience was a little bit harder to please. Maybe all the camera people dominating the front row (and almost getting in a fight with the guitar player) were getting in people’s way. Once the female vocalist came out though, the place started jumpin!

D: The singer moved her hips, and boogied down low to the stage floor. The night had begun, and the audience flooded in closer to the stage with eyes hungry for Afro-Peruvian electro-dub. The band was composed of eight figures: The front of the stage was occupied by two hand drummers, rocking congas and wooden boxes that they would sit upon. Also up front was the singer and the guitar player, who would momentarily twiddle with an effects box to create piercing noises overtop of the funky rhythms.

S: Backing them up was a bass player who kinda looked like a psycho killer (he had a crazy, intense look on his face and he would shake his head like he was about to explode) but who played nothing but the funkiest lines; a laptop DJ who added a layer of dub/electro to the whole ensemble; a keyboardist who did more or less the same thing as the DJ, but used more keys; and an amazing drummer who rocked the dope beats on timbales, snare, two cowbells, a woodblock and cymbals. Yeah!

D: In short, a tight, highly rhythmically orientated band, focusing primarily on creating incredibly sweet dance music of an Afro-Cuban flavour, but who were also ready for electro-dub experimentation, a la the UK dance scene.

S: As a live show, it worked incredibly well, getting the whole crowd moving (who were of a surprisingly mixed age-range and background) and shaking their feet. Their album (the one that we heard) seemed a bit disjointed, with vocals kinda tacked onto jams and then mixed by a DJ, but live was a whole different story. They were clearly built for the live show and their chemistry was obvious. They looked like they were having a great time, and so did we!

D: Hooray for Nuits D’Afrique! A great show, 5 cow jaw-bone shakers out of 5. If you ever get a chance to see this band, you gotta do it! Obey or perish!

You can catch the comedic stylings of Stefan and Driij as they host the Pan African Hour on Wednesday from 12 pm to 1 pm.