...The live Africano/Power sequence kills.




tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Hey Funkpill and tA, thanks for posting this thread. You brought back one of my greatest concert memories and solved a mystery for me all at the same time.

I saw that tour and was so impressed with the way it opened. I wrote about it later but couldn't recall the name of the opening tune. It was Aficano (as posted by tA)!

Here's my review:

OK it's time to report out the Earth Wind and Fire concert of Dec. 30th, 1980 at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland CA and as I recall it's this stadium type place that holds maybe 35 or 40,000 people.

We had great seats, maybe a hundred feet or so from the stage which in a venue like this is really close.

As the time drew near for the show to begin the house lights were turned down and we were sitting in the dark with some low spots on the stage so you could just barely see the amplifiers and drum set a glowing in the dark.

Anticipation is mounting and then a tall shadowy figure appears on the stage and begins stalking around kicking at the amp banks. As he comes forward we see its Darth Vader. His helmet is mic’d and we hear him raspilly breathing and growling to himself, “I hate music. I hate music.”

This was curious. WTF does Darth Vader have to do with an EWF performance? Then, as mysteriously as he arrived he was gone.

And then all of a sudden BOOM, the show was in full swing!

Now remember these were the days of incredible special effects and EWF had spared no expense.

They appeared out of nowhere in a giant blast of fire and smoke already playing their instruments. Some came down from the ceiling in flaming pyramids some came up out trapdoors, some came out of clouds of smoke but all of a sudden they were just there and playing their asses off.


I don't remember which song they started with but I do remember that it was a particularly fast tempo song and they did not start this song from the beginning. They came in on it somewhere in the middle of a very fast passage and they did it flawlessly, while swinging down from the rafters no less.

It had the effect of just blowing you back in your seat. It was an Oh MY God moment. If you think about the discipline and virtuosity that it took to start a show like this you get a good sense of how accomplished these players are

The show continued on for more than an hour with EWF running through their hits but stretching out on them with lots of variation from the recorded versions and awesome soloing. Although every musician who took a solo displayed world-class ability, the one that impressed me most was when Philip Bailey the falsetto lead singer showed us his chops.

The fact that that could be done with the human voice was just astounding. If you’ve ever heard the call and response exchange between saxophonist Don Myrick and Philip Bailey on the song Reasons from the live album you have just a hint of the form that Bailey was in that night.

So here we are groovin’ to a fabulous show and all of a sudden the Darth Vader character was back on stage. Lead singer Maurice White and the Darth Vader character began to have a fireball fight. Flash pots are going off everywhere.

Vader was running all over the stage knocking things over and trying to ruin the performance. He'd pick up a horn player like he weighed nothing and toss him through a flaming trapdoor in the stage as if sending him to hell

After five or so minutes of this fighting Maurice White steps up to microphone breathless from the effort and says to the audience. "This dark force…he’s
too powerful y’all. I can't beat him alone. I need all y’all’s help. On the count of three I want you to stand up out your chairs with your hands over your heart like this (he crosses hands and arms over his chest) and I want you to throw all the love you got at the stage and together we can beat this dark force.”

Then Verdine White, the bass player steps up to mic and counts off, “one, two three” and 30,000 people jump up out of their seats and throw all the love they got in their hearts at the dark monster on the stage.

Now what happened next happened all in a single moment but it will take me some time to describe it.

Over the stage were mounted about a dozen emerald green lasers very, very bright. At the back of the stage were positioned a dozen mirrors set at precise angles to deflect the emerald shafts of light flashing out into the back of the stadium where they were met by a dozen more mirrors which directed the beams to the center of the ceiling.

In the center of the ceiling was one mirror which consolidated all 12 beams into one huge super beam of green light and directed at back down to the stage right on the spot where Darth Vader was standing and vaporized him into a puff of smoke.

Now in this moment that the event occurred, the musicians turned on a dime and went from playing the dramatic fight music to playing a very triumphant passage.

The fact of having everyone's attention in the same place that the same time to participate in such an archetypal act of vanquishing a demon with the power of love accompanied by the appropriately triumphant music was unbelievably powerful. It was not merely witnessed but participated in it and it was a moment of true oneness and one of the most brilliant performance concepts I've ever seen.

One of the top concert experiences of my life.

DakutiusMaximus said:

I like your review I really wish I could have seen an EW&F concert back in those days.

theAudience said:

"Hell yeah"

I can play Power from LDAT and African from TTWOTW, and still have to play the Africano/Power from Gratitude to be satisfied.

...Presenting Earth-Wind & Fiyah