This is the final act on the Dean’s Bean’s stage of the three-day Green River Music Festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts on 7/14/19. The sun is shining on the distant hills of this idyllic New England setting. Minutes before the scheduled start time, Fantastic Negrito and his band do a soundcheck. “ Where should the guitar be at?” The assembling crowd shouts, “louder”. He responds, “I don’t work for you… I work for him,” signaling to the sound booth.
Tall and thin, his height accentuated by his vertical Afro-punk mohawk, Xavier Dphrepaulezz, known by his stage name Fantastic Negrito, sports bright red pants, and red-polka dot shirt while wielding a guitar.
Opening with “Everybody Needs a Bad Guy.” it is clear this performance will be a standout against the more acoustic, roots-oriented music. This track explores the scapegoat, accused and accuser, understanding the societal necessity for both. He writes with a sense of personal experience and heart, bringing us closer to the modern, human condition.
I got fired for nothing
I thought they were just bluffing
I was almost on time, I had so much on my mind
I feel disrespected, I feel so neglected
Everybody needs a bad guy
So they can have a savior
Flanked on stage right by rock guitarist Paul Sounder with his searing classic rock and blues guitar and headbanging lunges…
Darian Gray, center stage, keeps everyone together on drums while Bryan Simmons brings his own jazz/blues keyboards to the mix.
It does not take long to hear the obvious influences or similarities with Funkadelic & Parliament, and even Frank Zappa. All of whom, bring a sense of the absurd, theatricality, and social messaging. Yet at other times, Fantastic Negrito offers the righteous gospel sermon of a preacher or even a traveling salesman with tonics for cures. In such moments emotive artists such as James Brown or Chuck Berry come to mind. However, Fantastic Negrito fully owns his sound and presence, and he is acutely aware of how he got to where he is today musically.
His message of activism is a strong thread throughout his music and performance.
All the people with love in your heart
Get unified
Get organized
Fierce energy in lyrics and psychedelic blue rock guitars make the listening experience intense. But like the good showman he is, he knows when to breath, pause, and force us to think. With his unique mix of storytelling, social and political commentary, and humor Fantastic Negrito often speaks in hyperbole, but this can turn to humility in the blink of an eye.
He confesses to the audience about growing up in Oakland (but was born in the Berkshires) and how he thought the pimps, hustlers, and dealers were tough guys. However, when his mother called him to tell him his fourteen-year-old brother was shot in the head and she took him to see the body. Through his brother’s murder, his mother showed him he was on the wrong path.
“My mother is the tough one!.. This next one is for all the mothers out there.”
This track is one of the few covers in FN’s repertoire “ Black Girl (In the Pines)”, adapted from Leadbelly’s 1944 release, which itself was derived from Applachian songs dating back to the 1870s. Some may know it from Kurt Cobain’s wrenching version for MTV Unplugged in the 90s. Here on stage, Fantastic Negrito infuses more of his own brand of a bluesy “Negro Spritual.” It’s an emotional and moving song that deals with race and murder, but Fantastic Negrito has personalized and replaced some lyrics.
You raised your child
All by yourself
Then the policeman shot him down
Though he sees the connection to the past in a racially conflicted America, his voice is just as important to hear today in a society where we take so much for granted. He digs into the richness of African American cultural legacy at the outset of “An Honest Man” where the “Negro Spiritual” musical tradition, born in the plantation fields of hard slave labor, still finds meaning today.
He interjects, “We got the Bill of Rights, but they wanna take it away from you.”
An “Honest Man” reminds us that Fantastic Negrito is very much a story-teller, exploring political and social conditions and situations that have laid the seeds for our times. Though this song evokes a cultural context for this cautionary tale of an addict, many may see it as about the struggle of being human, where life’s choices and situations don’t always align.
Looking for my fix again
He taps his forearm as if fixing heroin. Switching from vocal highs to lows with tempos to match, he is both introspective and expressive keeping it unpredictable, entertaining, and engaging.
Yesterday it felt so good
Today it feels so bad
Naturally, included in the set were other tracks from his 2018 album Please Don’t Be Dead including “Plastic Hamburger,” a call to action for social change, and “Transgender Biscuits,” a song that looks at how we treat each other through labels, both literal and ironic.
Fierce energy in lyrical content and delivery with psychedelic blues-rock guitars makes the listening experience intense, but the live concert is even better. And just like a good showman, he knows when to breath, pause, and make us think.
