Show review: Janka Nabay & The Bubu Gang, Natural Information Society, Jamaican Queens at The Empty Bottle, 7/30

By Gene Wagendorf III

Janka Nabay and Boshra Al-Saadi

When you call yourself the "king" of anything, you'd better have the chops to back it up. Janka Nabay, the Sierra Leonean leader of The Bubu Gang, did just that at The Empty Bottle on Monday night.

When I spoke to the singer last week he confessed, "I love to see people dance. Not just to my music, but to any music, because dancing is like medicine. It keeps you fit. That's why we do this." The Bubu Gang wasted no time in inspiring their audience to move, beginning their set with a tropical jam featuring rolling bass lines and springy percussion. Nabay traded vocal flutters with Syrian chanteuse Boshra Al-Saadi, his wild, stream of consciousness raps bending around her smooth, glistening chants. The vocalists showed an incredible musical chemistry, working their voices through the interstices of the groove being laid out by the rest of The Gang.