What do you get when you bring a non conforming, Black woman, to Toronto to give a free show at an outdoor venue notorious for bad sound, and very archaic noise by laws (yes, I see you over there Toronto Island dwellers)? You get a gorgeous lesson on the continued Dogma of Meshell Ndegeocello.
Some of the audience had heard about this gig last minute as it wasn't a part of Harbourfront's summer program. Those who had read the newspaper the day before learned she was appearing in Toronto, and that she would not be playing any of the older material. I myself had heard this fact from fan sites stating that fans in other cites fans had walked out of shows because Meshell didn't play the familar material. She explained in the article in The Toronto Star that she's not being an asshole, but rather has evolved beyond the tunes. That's a difficult statement for some fans to digest, because it sounds a bit too egotistical, to expect fans to pay to hear music they have never heard before, but if there is something that Meshell does well, it is to challenge the norms.
The opening act was called the Budos band, off the Dap Tone label. A bodacious, bacchanalia, of bombastic,brass and bass. They are somewhere between a Blaxplotation Willie Hutch score and a Los Lobos tyraid for a Robert Rodriguez film. They set out to heat up the audience and they succeeded in the difficult role of the opening act. The opening act should gently whet the appetite of the lion (the audience), with their show, don't ram your music down it's throat because you many just lose that hand. They were a pleasure to hear.
So that brings me to Meshell. When she shyly stepped on stage ordered people to dance, because it's not that intellectual, that became a silent mantra for the audience members. Although Meshell is indeed conscious and intellectual, ther is no denial that at the root of her music is a desire to create a good groove.
There is not doubt about her commitment to her art as I watched her engineering the sound from the stage, which is not an easy job to do when you are playing outdoors, where the sound often gets lost over the water or Lake Ontario. Technically, there was not one bad note coming from the stage. She made sure that each of her bandmates shone. Tha't a rare thing to see on stage when a most star musicans tend to become egomaniacs. Meshell like a proud tacher, pushed her bandmates forward time and again, to shine. It was beautiful to see such teamwork at play.
From when she came on stage till she left, all were treated to her new material, with the exception of Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart. Her new music reflectes the state of the world's psyche today. Our flaws, passion, paranoia, and hope. In a way I could see why the older songs wouldn't fit in with the new. Somehow, her singing "if that's your boyfriend he wasn't last night" would sound odd now. I personally don't need lullabies of yesterday because they can sometimes put me to sleep. Meshell seems to want to challenge the audience to get out of this romantic nostalgic state of mind, that concert goers get into.
Meshell in essense has become a kind of musical Black panther of the music world; ready to attack the status quo, using her funky basslines, as a talking stick, and her words as sound bombs.
Dogma is defined as specific tenets or doctrine authoritatively laid down. It's funny that Meshell would proclaim that she is not dogmatic at her show in Toronto, because there is no doubt that Meshell's songwriting definatly has a doctrine to it. A belief in the power of the groove to encourage re-evaluation of the collective reliance of the world on the demagogy of today. Meshell has had her ear to the groud for quite sometime, and her new material is no exception. She continues to challenge the listener to free your mind, ass and everyting else in between.
Some of the audience had heard about this gig last minute as it wasn't a part of Harbourfront's summer program. Those who had read the newspaper the day before learned she was appearing in Toronto, and that she would not be playing any of the older material. I myself had heard this fact from fan sites stating that fans in other cites fans had walked out of shows because Meshell didn't play the familar material. She explained in the article in The Toronto Star that she's not being an asshole, but rather has evolved beyond the tunes. That's a difficult statement for some fans to digest, because it sounds a bit too egotistical, to expect fans to pay to hear music they have never heard before, but if there is something that Meshell does well, it is to challenge the norms.
The opening act was called the Budos band, off the Dap Tone label. A bodacious, bacchanalia, of bombastic,brass and bass. They are somewhere between a Blaxplotation Willie Hutch score and a Los Lobos tyraid for a Robert Rodriguez film. They set out to heat up the audience and they succeeded in the difficult role of the opening act. The opening act should gently whet the appetite of the lion (the audience), with their show, don't ram your music down it's throat because you many just lose that hand. They were a pleasure to hear.
So that brings me to Meshell. When she shyly stepped on stage ordered people to dance, because it's not that intellectual, that became a silent mantra for the audience members. Although Meshell is indeed conscious and intellectual, ther is no denial that at the root of her music is a desire to create a good groove.
There is not doubt about her commitment to her art as I watched her engineering the sound from the stage, which is not an easy job to do when you are playing outdoors, where the sound often gets lost over the water or Lake Ontario. Technically, there was not one bad note coming from the stage. She made sure that each of her bandmates shone. Tha't a rare thing to see on stage when a most star musicans tend to become egomaniacs. Meshell like a proud tacher, pushed her bandmates forward time and again, to shine. It was beautiful to see such teamwork at play.
From when she came on stage till she left, all were treated to her new material, with the exception of Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart. Her new music reflectes the state of the world's psyche today. Our flaws, passion, paranoia, and hope. In a way I could see why the older songs wouldn't fit in with the new. Somehow, her singing "if that's your boyfriend he wasn't last night" would sound odd now. I personally don't need lullabies of yesterday because they can sometimes put me to sleep. Meshell seems to want to challenge the audience to get out of this romantic nostalgic state of mind, that concert goers get into.
Meshell in essense has become a kind of musical Black panther of the music world; ready to attack the status quo, using her funky basslines, as a talking stick, and her words as sound bombs.
Dogma is defined as specific tenets or doctrine authoritatively laid down. It's funny that Meshell would proclaim that she is not dogmatic at her show in Toronto, because there is no doubt that Meshell's songwriting definatly has a doctrine to it. A belief in the power of the groove to encourage re-evaluation of the collective reliance of the world on the demagogy of today. Meshell has had her ear to the groud for quite sometime, and her new material is no exception. She continues to challenge the listener to free your mind, ass and everyting else in between.
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