POP MUSIC

Monday, January 9, 2006

Supersystem

Teaching the indie kids how to dance is difficult. Many of these unfortunate souls were born with two left feet and a deep self-consciousness, which limits them to performing fake Irish jigs or wacky break-dance moves. Very few of them know how to just let loose and bust a move or three.

At the Supersystem show Saturday at the Black Cat, a house full of indie-rockers tried to shake that thang -- and many of them did just that, at length, without acting like shaking your booty is something to be embarrassed about.

Supersystem was formerly known as El Guapo, which over the course of four CDs created a lot of irritating art rock. But on 2003's "Fake French," the trio started playing with new-wave dance grooves. Then came a name change, a new label (Chicago's Touch & Go), a new CD ("Always Never Again") and an expanded lineup with a new drummer (Joshua Blair). The punk-funk makeover was complete.

Playing 10 taut songs in an hour-long set, Supersystem had the crowd pogoing, shaking and shimmying to a potent blend of Devo, A Certain Ratio, Liquid Liquid and other early-'80s groups that married the tense energy of punk with the hypnotic rhythms of Africa and disco. Bassist Justin "Destroyer" Moyer, keyboardist Pete Cafarella and guitarist Rafael Cohen traded sing-shouted vocals as Blair kept techno-like time on his drums. Highlights included "Born Into the World," "The Love Story," "Click-Click," "Six Cities" and "Everybody Sings." But Supersystem's songs tend to sound enough alike -- sharing Arabic- and African-tinged guitar bits, spiky bass lines, squealing synths and nonstop percussive thump -- that the 10 tunes worked almost like one long medley. Plus, it's much easier to boogie down to one incessant sound when you have two left feet.

-- Christopher Porter

Mike Clem

Friday was quite the night for Mike Clem at Jammin' Java: It was the release party for his first-ever solo CD ("1st and 40"), the club was packed with family (he's a McLean native) and fans of his band, Eddie From Ohio, and it was his 40th birthday.

Naturally, the consummate performer rose to the occasion in a generously portioned concert that revealed his strengths as a songwriter, a guitarist and an observational comedian. Think Blink-182 with words by Todd Snider and you get an idea of what Clem does within the confines of folk rock.

Clem accompanied himself on acoustic and the occasional electric guitar for songs such as "I.S.O.," "Virgil's Refund," "Sprawl" and "Rosencrantz," which tipped off the audience as to who has been writing intelligent and witty lyrics that have made EFO a national favorite in the last decade. In fact, at one point he apologized to Julie Murphy Wells, the band's principal singer, who has had to memorize his wordy lyrics all those years.

One by one, EFO members -- singer/guitarist Robbie Schaefer, who has a solo album of his own in the works, percussionist Eddie Hartness and Wells -- joined Clem onstage until the whole band was together, a rarity since Wells began battling breast cancer last summer. It was heartwarming to see the ensemble together and reassuring to hear them as vocally tight as ever.

The opening set by Irish singer/songwriter Sarah Croker was charming and touching, with her songs highlighted by evocative dobro picking by Dan LaMaestra, a pianist on his night off from the Navy's Commodores.

-- Buzz McClain

Willie Colon

Dedicated fans with cell phone cameras were out in force at H2O Friday night for salsa legend Willie Colon's farewell tour appearance. This Bronx-born musician, businessman and community activist is only 55, but after 40 years of performing he has decided he's had enough of the road. Let us hope he breaks his promise. The onetime bad boy now has a paunch and has gone gray, but he and his eight-piece band served up his catalogue with power and passion for 90 minutes.

Colon is best known for his pioneering recordings as a trombonist, songwriter, bandleader and producer in the 1970s with the likes of Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz and Hector Lavoe. Although he has experimented over the years with jazz and rock touches, onstage he largely stuck to the fast-tempoed Afro-Latino approach that he filled dance floors with in his prime. On selections including "Idilio" and "La Banda," a red-cheeked Colon feverishly blew his horn and then sang, accompanied by two other trombonists, a sax player and musicians on piano, acoustic bass, timbales, bongos and congas. Crowded together on a small stage, Colon and company created a multi-layered joyous racket of call-and-response vocals, booming brass and intricate beats without their sound's ever descending into chaos.

Colon has long been as interested in melody as the clave beat, and he uses bright vocal choruses adapted from rural Puerto Rican standards. This do-it-all artist showed that he is not bad as a vocalist on the countryish "Ares de Navidad" and lush "Periodico de Ayer." The rap-influenced genre of reggaeton is the Spanish-language sound of the moment, but the vibrant salsa of Colon's ensemble remains anything but passe.

-- Steve Kiviat

Mustafa Akbar

Aquick rendition of "Up for the Down Stroke" never hurt anybody, but there are better ways for a band to add Clintonian touches to a show. At the Black Cat on Friday night, singer Mustafa Akbar gave a nod to the founding father of '70s psychedelic funk by flanking himself with two red-clad, winged, afro-sporting women who looked as if they'd jumped off of the album cover for "One Nation Under a Groove."

The ladies followed choreographed moves that made them seem like robotic mannequins as the local funk/soul vocalist and his band, the Chosen, stirred up the audience with songs mostly taken from Akbar's 2003 disc, "Natural High." The Rastafarian leanings of the record's title track, with its chorus, "It's okay if you wanna get high, but you don't have to get so low," were coolly inspirational, and the easygoing groove of the dance song "Shake (The Party's Live)" was thickened by a breathy falsetto from Akbar -- who has appeared on projects of ESL drum 'n' bass act Thunderball and legendary hip-hop icon Afrika Bambaataa.

Akbar, who performed with rapper Cy Young and singer Muhsinah, was able to move the small crowd during his lively set, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't get the angels, whom he called his "painted ladies," to break form.

The women remained stoic and stiff even during "Dark Berry," when Akbar sang about the beauty of a "statuesque princess" with "mahogany skin" just inches from their faces. They finally succumbed to the rhythm during "I Want U 2," when Akbar's guttural wailing spurred them to rock and sway with the music.

-- Sarah Godfrey