Nahko and Medicine For The People w/ Hirie
Showbox, Seattle, WA
10.13.16
A long line of Nahko and Medicine For The People fans led toward The Showbox, and I huddled into my jacket, listening to the reverb of the rain against my hood. In all likelihood, some of this sold out crowd would end up missing the prompt start of Hirie’s opening set.
I managed to sneak into the venue just in time to catch Hirie beginning with the title track off her new album, Wandering Soul. On top of the signature baseline, they layered on the didgeridoo, some drums, a melodica, flute, and saxophone. Beautiful vocals guided people in from the rain with the band’s reggae sound and the words, “I may be a wandering soul, wandering until I am home.”
It was obvious for most of the people that showed up, this felt like “home.” As I observed the mostly 20s-30s crowd, blending dreadlocked hippies and spoken word/hip-hop fans with the occasional child attached to someone’s hip or sitting on someone’s shoulders, it was refreshing to see such a happy demeanor with everyone that I interacted with.
Hirie had such an infectious personality as she smiled with her eyes and made sure to interact with the young children in the audience. With both Hirie and NAMFTP’s music being very much about the lyrics, I appreciated the sound guys who made sure the vocals were not drowned out by the baseline. Overall, they were a great live band pulling out all sorts of tricks (playing the guitar behind the head) and a plethora of musical instruments that created the perfect environment for some uninhibited dancing.
Next, Nahko Bear, leader of NAMFTP, came out with activist trainer and protest organizer, Joshua Kahn Russell, both empty-handed with the exception of megaphones. They began chanting, “Water is life. Water is sacred. Salmon will run. No dam can hold.” Everyone joined along in the unspoken understanding that they were about to go on a collective journey guided by NAMFTP that would involve standing with each other against all of the political injustices that are happening right now.
The crowd knew it was the HOKA: A Call To Action Tour, and with every song in their set being off the new album, HOKA, no one seemed to mind the lack of old favorites. As Bear and Russell gathered their tribe, woke them up, inspired them, rallied them, they yelled the Lakota battle cry, “HOKA!” and in unison the crowd all shouted, “HOKA!” and his fingers hit the piano keys with such purpose as he went into the first song of his powerful set, “Directions.”
While interviewing Bear prior to his set, I noted that I appreciated how deliberate he seemed to be about everything he did, like the song order for their new album. He replied, “Well, of course. You have to tell the story.”
Throughout the night, Russell came out and spoke to the crowd about different causes that they were supporting, bringing light to different perspectives and truths regarding specific issues. It always made for a good transition between songs. Earlier, I asked Bear what his favorite song to play live was, he said it was their new song, “Dear Brother.” They introduced it by stating statistics about police brutality and asked their white allies to stand with them against it; however, they didn’t just say, “Stand with us. This isn’t right.” Russell got up to educate the audience on a new perspective by speaking about his own history regarding the way he was raised as a white boy being taught to be colorblind.
He thought being colorblind meant not having racism in your mind or bigotry in your heart. He didn’t have that, so he thought he was fine. “But it turns out,” he said, “It’s a little more complicated than that. When you are colorblind, you become system blind, because racism is a system. Bigotry is a system, right? And one thing I’ve learned, for those of us who are white; it is invisible to us on purpose and the best way to start to see it, is to develop new eyes, is to challenge that system. You start to see our little cracks. I started to do this over time because we are treated so differently in every aspect of life, and I knew we needed to elevate above that. And that is our work to do people. Right? Are you ready to do that work?” He also stated that “non-violence does not mean non-confrontational,” which elicited a roar in the crowd as they dove into more teachings from Ghandi, which led them into “Dear Brother.”
While the mission of the band was more prominent than at most shows you’ll see around Seattle, that by no means meant the show lacked in musical amazement. With powerful vocals, an incredibly talented group of musicians, and clearly a unified community of like-minded individuals, it was hard to take your attention off of the stage, or in some moments, the neighbors around you as they insisted everyone look at his or her neighbor and say “one thing I want to see changed in the world is…” and the neighbor would respond with, “I’m with you.”
The encore was short, sweet, and done in such a beautiful way. Bear came out singing, “Are you ready, ready, ready?” in a gentle and mellow cadence; just him and his guitar. He went into “Are you ready for your blessing? Are you ready for your miracle?” and all of the band members of both NAMFTP and Hirie filed out from backstage joining him in the song. They sang this a few times and ended with a big curtain call bow. As they began leaving the stage, Bear went to the mic and led the audience in a lovely a capella version of the chorus of “Manifesto.” Everyone was then commissioned to go out to be more than the change they wish to see in the world.
“They sang don’t waste your hate
rather gather and create
be of service, be a sensible person
use your words and don’t be nervous
you can do this, you’ve got purpose
find your medicine and use it.”
Review by Megan Kumakura
Photos by Phillip Johnson
Nahko and Medicine For the People
Hirie
