Gig: Masaisai

Masaisai

Gladstone Hotel (Ballroom). Friday, August 14, 2009.

On a Friday evening, I was a little sleepy from having been up late the night before watching Forest City Lovers and The D'Urbervilles tear up the stage at their Summerworks show, so I wasn't sure how long I could last. Considering the options, I decided to check out this post-Afrofest show at the Gladstone. Not only was it free, meaning I'd feel okay about leaving early, but it was also front-loaded with the band I was most interested in, Masaisai, a local band with most of the membership having roots in Zimbabwe. The band's music is based around the mbira (thumb piano), and mixes a roots music with a modern sensibility. The band was six players deep: drums, bass, guit, two mbira and a dancer/percussionist. Anyone familiar with the work of the mighty Thomas Mapfumo's chimurenga would have an idea of where this band is coming from. It's energetic, infectiously danceable stuff. If I were going to pick one adjective to describe it, it would be "bright" — redolent not only of the sunny emotional tenor, but also the skipping treble like light reflecting off a lake.

The musicians, including one youthful mbira player, were operating at a high level. The drums provided an excellent backbone with a steady skittering beat and guitarist Larry Lewis provided a lot of that aforementioned brightness. This was a really good half-hour of music, although were a couple tweaks that could have improved matters: the mix wavered a couple times, with the mbira disappearing a bit and the shaker overpowering things at a few moments. And while singer Tichaona Maredza did a fine job and held forth with a warm presence, he could have exercised his frontman's prerogative to inveigh the crowd, which seemed a little hesitant, up and dancing in front of the stage. After four songs, the band thought they were up against their time limit, but were convinced to stay up for one more, which sounded a little rushed in the tempo, as if they graciously didn't want to overstay their welcome on the stage.

But these are small things. Overall, this grabbed me in just the right way — fun stuff that makes you want to dance some. Don't take my word for it — the band has some more upcoming gigs listed on their myspace, including a free show on Saturday, August 22.

There was a whole slate of acts following Masaisai on stage at the Gladstone, and from what I heard catching the end of some of them soundchecking, it was a solid lineup throughout. But I was getting sleepy fast and decided to call it a night with a warm feeling from a band I'll be looking to see again.

Listen to a track from this set here.