Michael Franti & Spearhead + Cherine Anderson - Marymoor Park (Redmond, WA; Sept. 12, 2008)

Arriving at Marymoor Park a little on the late side, we crossed the field to retrieve our passes from . . . a sheriff. Marymoor is a county park: complete with recycling patrols, clearly marked walkways and patrons of all ages. I saw mothers bouncing babes in arms, little ones in PJs, youngsters twirling glow jewelry, 2 boys under a striped blanket looking like a human puppet zebra and an extremely cute toddler hula-hooping. But the best part about the crowd? Everyone was dancing. Even those coming back from concessions, 90% of whom were carrying beers in both hands, were bopping along to the infectious beats.

Warming up the crowd was Jamaican soul singer Cherine Anderson, who showed off her range and power with slow “diva"-style vocals mixed over reggae beats. A bit reminiscent of Lauryn Hill but with more funk to her voice, we found her to be extremely charismatic, weaving her sultry way across the stage. Stating she needed a recipient for her love music, she approached security guard “Mike” at the edge of the stage. Despite his best efforts to remain passive, when Cherine sat down, crossed her legs and leaned over seductively and began rubbing his pecs, a red blush emerged on his cheeks and smiles appeared on the faces of those all around.

Needing no further setup, Michael Franti and Spearhead immediately took the stage and welcomed us all with a sped-up version of “Hello Bonjour.” Franti’s voice sounds remarkably like it does on his cds, although he sped up many of the tunes with a bit more of a hip-hop styling to his singing. Following the Yell Fire opener, they treated us to “Rude Boys Back in Town” a dub-rock heavy tune off the recently released All Rebel Rockers. The entire set featured a nice mix of older and new tunes, all reflecting Franti’s themes of love, activism, and world peace. The new album is especially heavy on the reggae/island sounding dub beats and has a bit of a less political slant, having a more “all about the love” feel.

Cherine Anderson came back on stage to sing on several numbers, notably “Little Bit of Riddum” with its explicitly sensual imagery that brought her and Franti close to one another, smiling, singing and moving somewhat suggestively.

Several of the tunes, notably “I Got Love For You” sounded almost like two separate songs building in energy and then slowing to a pause, before the whole band came back in led by a strong guitar pickup (from Dave Shul). Franti talked relatively little outside of a few invitations to the crowd to jump and put their arms up, but did explain this tune, noting it was about his son’s trip from San Francisco to New York via a Greyhound bus.

While all the songs brought out at minimum some head-bopping, “Is Your Love Enough?” made at least one of these reviewers wish they were wearing a hula skirt for some serious hip-swishing. Opening with strikingly similar notes to Led Zepplin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” Franti began the tune seated on a stool next to Nigerian percussionist Manas Itiene who pounded out some quick island rhythms on a djembe (or other type of hand drum) and added his high African falsetto.

We were a bit confused when Franti announced the winner of a “contest” would be coming up on stage until we realized that in fact, Franti and Spearhead were being gracious enough to allow one fellow to propose on stage and enjoy one bass heavy “Everyone Deserves Music,” which provoked your other reviewer to remark, “You can smell that funk over here!” (and we were all the way in the back).

Pumping up the crowd until the very end, Franti jumped and fist-pumped around the stage as he sang out “Yell Fire,” which played like an energetic rally cry and featured a “Hey, that’s queen!” (-doc) electric guitar solo.

Spearhead closed their set with the new single “Hey Mama,” which featured some call and response between Franti and Cherine and turned the lawn into something of a 50’s dance-hall. The song showed off some fast scales by Carl Young on bass and “Zig Zag” (Raliegh Neal) on keys (who regrettably was positioned behind some setup and therefore impossible for Nicole to photograph). We’d just begun to debate that the tune sounded like early classic guitar or “like Elvis” when Franti busted out “Since My Baby Left Me.” Franti frequently threw in licks like this, and shortly after flowed smoothly into Mungo Jerry’s “In The Summertime.” Coming together for one final can-can line of kicks, Franti closed out the show with his signature fist in the air, “Power to the peaceful.” Indeed.

Set List:
01—Hello Bonjour
02—Rude Boys Back in Town
03—Time To Go Home
04—Sometimes
05—Everybody Ona Move
06—Ganja Babe
07—All I Want Is You
08—Little Bit of Riddim
09—One Step Closer to You
10—Is Love Enough
11—Life in the City
12—Everyone Deserves Music
13—Light Up Ya Lighter
14—Never Too Late
15—Hey World
16—I Got Love For You
17—Soundsystem
18—I Know I’m Not Alone
19—Yell Fire
20—Hey Mama

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