Afro-punk bangs out Boulder - 11.8.09

Tired and drunk after a rocking performance night in New Orleans, the Afro-punk gang packed up their bags and headed to their next destination, The Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado.

It was a rough morning traveling to Boulder-- the group: headliner Saul Williams and his band, CX Kidtronik and Tchaka Diallo from Krak Attack, and Afro-punk production, said good-bye to their comfy tour bus and were now committed to touring the country by plane. The rest of the traveling acts, The American Fangs and Earl Greyhound continued their journey by van and were expected to meet up with the music tour once reaching Boulder. "It's hard enough dragging your music equipment from city to city, let alone by plane," Saul said. "And you know CX is drunk which makes this whole situation a lot harder," he joked.

Once landing in Boulder, we wasted no time driving to the venue to begin the 4 p.m. sound check. Located in a popular bar and commercial area in Boulder called "The Hill," the Fox Theatre has staged musicians ranging from Phish, Method Man, Dave Matthews Band, and even the Wu Tang Clan. Tonight's Afro-punk experience would not only add to the strong line up of acts, but would bring a new music flavor to the Boulder locals.

Getting the crowd pumped early, Afro-punk invited resident Colorado disc jockey, Musa Bailey, to spin some tracks before the show started. Known as DJ MU$A, his career took off when he was recognized by Saul Williams in 1999 at a live audition at CBGB's venue in Manhattan. One year later, he was invited by Saul to tour with him throughout Europe and was responsible for producing Saul's popular song, "Grippo." Wrapping up his set in Boulder, Mu$a played a remix to Living Colour's, "Cult of Personality," saying, "that's the only way I could close out an Afro-punk set." Here is DJ MU$A hard at work at The Fox Theatre, along with Saul and Mu$a catching up backstage.

It took the guys in American Fangs more than 23 hours to drive from New Orleans to Boulder, but they pulled up at The Fox ready to rock the crowd. The drive was painful, the guys said, but said they would prefer being on the road then having a dead end job in their hometown of Houston, TX. "I didn't want to be working that hamster wheel nine to five, freaking traffic to and from work for the next thirty-five years with a perfect pension plan," Micah, American Fangs' drummer said. "I'd prefer to take the road less traveled and be on the road with my best friends doing what I love," he said.

During American Fangs' performance, CX from Krak Attack even came down into the audience and cheered the guys on.

After their set, New York based trio, Earl Greyhound dominated the stage with their sultry 70s sound, followed by the wild boys from Krak Attack, CX and Tchaka. During Krak Attack's performance, the crowd watched in awe as CX flew in the air in his Superman pajama pants (in true rock star fashion) along with the usual invitation for girls to join him on stage during their song "Black Girl: White Girl." Afro-punk skateboarder, Keith White, also joined the guys on stage to have some fun.

Earl Greyhound's Matt on guitar and Kamara on bass

Krak Attack going wild

As the crowd went wild with Krak Attack, backstage Saul transformed into Niggy Tardust and applied his stage face for the Boulder audience. Saul even had one of his favorite fans, Shep, come bring him and his band some vegan dishes. Known as "Hip Hop Mom," Shep has been following Saul's career since 1999 when she saw one of his first shows as Niggy Tardust. The first time Shep met Saul, she said, he was firing a barrage of words into it the mic but the cloud of noise just swallowed them all. So, being the reticent wallflower that she is, she said she asked him if he knew anything about funk and told him he needed a coach. Since then, they've been in contact ever since. Tonight Shep brought Saul a dish of black-eyed peas and rice with dessert. Yumm. Here is Shep and Saul backstage.

All filled up with food, Niggy Tardust was ready to hit the stage. Saul was happy for the reconnection with his longtime friends, Shep and DJ Mu$a, so he wanted to insure a good show. "It's always good to have friends in the audience," Saul said. "Having that connection with the crowd is the only way I like to perform," he said. Mixing his set with rock and poetry, Saul also stopped during his set and encouraged the audience to look beyond racial boundaries, that, he said, greatly limit us in life.