Staff Benda Bilili

Wish more people had turned out, but their original LA date was cancelled over a year ago due to problems with obtaining visas, and with limited promotion, what should have been a packed house was reduced to a core group of die hard fans. Nonetheless, Staff Benda Bilili sang and played like it was their last concert on earth (or their first in Heaven!), and the audience responded in kind. With tight vocal harmonies, a drum kit fashioned from the trunks of hollowed out trees, a one stringed instument played with amazing range and dexterity, two guitars and a bass, this was socially conscious party music extraordinaire! The sheer joy of the music transcended what was otherwise painfully obvious: that five of the eight band members were in wheelchairs or otherwise "disabled," most being polio victims. Though it's doubtful more than a dozen people in the crowd could comprehend their lyrics, passion and emotion could not be suppressed, and on that night we were all one people...