by Tade Obanubi
Our Rating “5 Stars”
As I exited Amsterdam Central station with my good friend called SA (pronounced Essay) and then got on a ferry to take us to the concert venue ‘Paradiso’. As we approached the venue’ we were met by four (4) Dutch friends who were very excited about this concert – and as we got to the entrance I also started to feel the energy and excitement for this show – it must be the Africa shrine effect.
The first thing to note was that the show started promptly on-time, and the rest was pure magic. These are interesting times for Femi Kuti – who without a doubt has established an impressive international brand of music, and still remains an icon.
Femi Kuti is a slick entertainer delighted the Amsterdam crowd with a combination of old materials and also teased the crowd with new materials from his album One People, One World. In a statement, Kuti said he hopes the project “inspires us all to understand we are all one on the same planet and it’s our duty to defend peace, love and justice and keep our planet healthy.” which was a fresh perspective, Unlike the righteous anger that inspired almost all of his previous recordings.
The band played solidly and the dancers enlivened the crowd with their gyrations and agility.
I also enjoyed the energy Femi shares with the crowd by getting them involved all the way through – his energetic dance was quite refreshing – there were gasp of surprise when he mentioned that he would be fifty-six (56) years old next month – he also added a deft touch by teaching the crowd a dance routine. Also without doubt, Femi remains a very impressive instrumentalist – alternating between his keyboards and his sax- I am still amazed with how he uses circular breathing technique when he blows his sax.
In summary, this was a very enjoyable concert, hence our 5 star. It was also a good touch that he came to the floor afterwards to sign CDs and t-shirts.
AQ power dressing: Mr Yemi Edun
