written by: JAMIE CESSFORDphotos by: ALEX YELIZAROV

As I’m sure most of you know, the Olympics brought a wide variety of cultural events with them to help promote the games (as if they needed any). While there was plenty of less mainstream events to attend (like the gay, hiphopera re-envisioning of Romeo and Juliet that was Bash’d, that I wanted to see, but never got around to), I attended K’Naan’s Cultural Olympiad show at the Orpheum on February 25th.

K’Naan, who’s single “Wavin’ Flag” is the theme song for the 2010 World Cup,  is a Somalian-born, Canadian-based poet/musician, who escaped the violence of Africa and landed in North America, where apparently, his story would play as the backdrop for massive success. This success was clear, as the K’naan fans were rabid, and surprisingly enough, an incredibly wide demographic.

My initial perception was that it would primarily be University students, but there were definitely 12 year olds there, as well as the older (45? 50?) couple sitting beside me. And these weren’t just fair whether K’naan fans.

They belted every word of every song.

For the most part, because of the generally sedated nature of K’naan’s music, the audience was fantastic, and certainly increased the experience for me, a non-K’naanite.

Now, for those of you who haven’t been to the Orpheum, let me paint you a picture of the venue: It’s rustic, classic architecture, with it’s highly stylized, domed ceiling is ideal as an acoustic environment. The staff that works there (right down to the ushers) takes great pride in the quality of the listening experience provided by their venue.

Ironically, on more than one occasion, my audial experience at the Orpheum has been sub-par, due to shotty sound teching, and this was one of the occasions. The high-end sounds were far to high in the mix, drowning out K’naan’s vocals, while the low-end was practically non-existent. For a hip-hop concert, zero to little bass is a huge drawback. Of course, this is a pop concert, not the VSO, which is what this venue was designed for.

Anyways, K’naan enters with an adoring fanbase screaming at him, and he tears into “In The Beginning” off of his first record Dusty Foot Philosopher. Although obviously constructed pop music, K’naan embraces a largely African/World mentality in his music, a theme that remained throughout the beginning of the set. For the most part, these less anthemic tracks seemed more appropriate for his fragile vocals, and created a more desirable atmosphere than the pop tracks. However, this atmosphere peaked with “Somalia” and “Fatima”, and we became barraged by his more familiar tracks.

For me, despite having a strong affection for the track “Bang Bang” (which reminds me largely of the Streets) off of Troubadour, these pop anthems disrupted the flow that I was enjoying so much. Suddenly, everything felt slightly more contrived, and I became uncomfortable with how much these songs lost their soul and allure. K’naan’s innocence suddenly became corrupted and his voice began to struggle against the large, glossy synths that fuelled the second half of the set.

Of course, the last track he played, before the encore, was “Wavin’ Flag”. At this point, the show felt like a giant crescendo into a song that everyone wanted to hear. Unfortunately, because of this, the early incarnation of K’naan that existed at the beginning of the showbecame lost, as though it never existed.

Although performance-wise, K’naan was tight, the latter part of his set felt too highly structured and calculated to entirely win me over, and I expect the general experience of the unfamiliar audience member to be the same.

However, for someone who loves everything this man does (and from the crowd, my understanding is that people do LOVE him) this set was everything you could have asked for.

Setlist:

1. “In the Beginning”

2. “ABC’s”

3. “America”

4. “Fire in Freetown”

5. “Take a Minute”

6. “Somalia”

7. “Fatima”

8. “Bang, Bang”

9. “If Rap Gets Jealous”

10. “Hoobale”

11. “TIA”

12. “Wavin’ Flag”

13. “I Was Stabbed by Satan”

14. “15 Minutes Away”

15. “Be Free”