Michael Franti and Spearhead with Bobby Long @ Lupo’s 11.5.10

To be honest, I only knew two of Michael Franti’s songs, ‘€œSay Hey (I Love You)’€ and ‘€œThe Sound of Sunshine,’€ before venturing off to Lupo’s in Providence, RI for the first time.  I expected Lupo’s to be like The Paradise or the Middle East’s downstairs, but I was quite wrong.  Lupo’s reminded me of a scaled-down version of Boston’s House of Blues, with a little more character.  I arrived just before the doors opened and had an hour to kill before the opening act came on, so I spent time observing the crowd.  Never had I ever been to a concert with such a diverse audience.  It included young children, college students, Bob Marley worshippers and cute elderly couples.

The opening act, Bobby Long, started off the night with a few folk acoustic numbers, adding a harmonica to the mix for ‘€œDead and Done.’€  A full band joined him on stage as he swapped his acoustic guitar for an electric, the songs picking up tempo to induce some mild dancing amongst the audience.  Hailing from the UK, Bobby Long certainly knew how to captivate the audience with his voice and emotion.  I had never heard of him, but he almost sounded like Bright Eyes meets Mumford & Sons.  As good as a performance Bobby Long put on, most people wanted to go crazy and dance, but this folk music was not inspiring any craziness.

The transition between the two first acts was relatively quick, and as soon as Michael Franti took the stage, the crowd went wild.  At this point, the floor and balcony of Lupo’s were packed.  Michael Franti and Spearhead played for two hours, if not more, and it was one massive dance party the entire time.  Franti’s music spanned a wide variety of styles, from reggae and hip-hop to alternative and acoustic, which kept the audience engulfed in the energy of the music.  The lyrics of every song dealt with relatable life anecdotes, and if you audience members didn’t know their words before the show, they somehow found themselves singing along anyways.

During one of the songs about love, a guy and his girlfriend got on stage (this was obviously arranged with Franti before the show) and the guy proposed to his girlfriend.  After a moment of utter surprise, she said yes.  Later on in the show, Franti handpicked people from the audience to get up on stage to dance to ‘€œShake It,’€ and for ‘€œSay Hey (I Love You),’€ he asked all children to come up on stage, as well as those who were at least 60 years old.  The show ended with their latest hit ‘€œThe Sound of Sunshine,’€ and instead of leaving to go backstage at the end of the show like most bands, the entire act came off tage to talk with audience members.

If you haven’t seen Franti live, or if you’ve never heard of him, I highly recommend that you see him sometime in the near future.  Not only will you immediately be captured by his music, you will leave the show dancing down the street.