Amayo and Antibalas begin month-long residency at the Knitting Factory on December 3 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Ave. at Havemeyer St.
Thursday, December 3, 10, 17, $12, 11:45 pm
December 31, $25, 10:00
347-529-6696
www.bk.knittingfactory.com
www.antibalas.com
For the past decade, the members of the Brooklyn-based musical collective Antibalas have served as the primary conduit, keepers-of-the-flame, and self-proclaimed “protectors” of the musical legacy of 1970s style Afrobeat music and its brightest star and spokesman, Fela Kuti. Even as the double-digit-piece Afrobeat Orchestra – which includes lead vocalist and percussionist Amayo, Stuart Bogie on tenor sax, Martin Perna on baritone sax, Victor Axelrod on keyboards, among others – has continued to tour relentlessly, composing songs and producing four albums that remain strikingly original while not veering too radically from their original sound, they still are a unit that is heavily indebted to Fela’s political and musical vision. Now, amid the opening fanfare and rave reviews of the Broadway musical based on the Nigerian firebrand’s life and work, FELA!, which features the band providing the show’s stirring music, Antibalas will be performing a late-night residency on Thursday nights in Brooklyn. As soon as the curtain comes down at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, the group will speed across the river to play at the third and latest incarnation of the Knitting Factory, which opened its doors last month at 361 Metropolitan Ave. at Havemeyer Street in Willamsburg. Expect a rotating cast of Antibalas associates and a festive atmosphere, with funky, loose, and lucid jams freed from the constraints of the musical’s preordained setlist. In addition, Amayo will be leading his Fu-Arkist-Ra there on December 21.