The Remedies serve nostalgia at Afropolitan Vibes

It was the second show of the Afropolitan Vibes in its new Muri Okunola Park location. The first, in June, was interrupted by rain. That act of nature combined with the increased time between shows raised questions about the quality of Afropolitan Vibes. It was not strange to hear people refer to the show’s time in Freedom Park with wistfulness. Therefore, there was pressure on the organisers to deliver a memorable show, the kind to turn its fans from past to future.

LasGiidi, first act of the night, was most energetic of all who climbed the stage, a feat, considering the energy the BANTU band performs with. He pranced around singing songs including the new single ‘Bottles’ featuring rapper Olamide. BANTU matched his energy, accompanying him with its usual German efficiency.

Mayorkun’s time on stage was a snapshot of the elements that made the night: a medley of past and present. He has gained prominence on the back of pop singles on the theme of love, and favours tungba music, a brand of danceable Yoruba pop music modeled on juju music. He has also joined the wave of what is popular today with his recent single ‘Mama’, which uses the laid-back beat that is the rave among Nigerian pop musicians. The song’s catchy line “All of your problems I know say solution na ego” might end up one of pop music’s lines of the year, alongside “30 billion for the account” from ‘If’ by Davido, boss of Mayorkun’s record label. The height of his performance presented a cliff from which the next act of the night, Simi, was bound to struggle from falling off.

Plagued by a misbehaving microphone, Simi got off to a slow start as she opened with ‘Aimasko’ from her new album Simisola. Perhaps the crowd hadn’t listened to the album enough, but the reception was too tepid for a song that samples juju legend Ebenezer Obey well. That problem was banished once she started ‘Joromi’, an obvious crowd-pleaser judging from its raucous reception.

For all the energy and invention of the first three artists, the night belonged to D’Remedies trio. Tony Tetuila, Eddie Remedy, and Eedris Abdulkareem, with their ageing but well-preserved faces, growing paunches and arsenal of late 1990s and early 2000s’ pop hits, were the perfect embodiment of nostalgia.

They jumped around the stage, shook hands and waved to the crowd as they switched from song to song. There was a chance Tony Tetuila had forgotten some of his lyrics, and almost a certainty that Eedris Abdulkareen couldn’t repeat his rapid-fire lines, but precision wasn’t demanded by a crowd content to see them onstage. Eedris tried to test the crowd’s memory with ‘Shako mo’, but if he was thinking himself forgotten, he shouldn’t have bothered. Time has turned his group’s class of Nigerian musicians into a desirable ideal before younger folk to whom they represent a certain heyday of pop inventiveness. Shortly after, the stage became a time machine, with Daddy Showkey and Konga popping out to the delight of an ecstatic crowd.

“I wish we could do this every month, but see this people,” Ade Bantu said, pointing towards his band, “they want to tour.”

By the end, his wish had become the crowd’s desire. By reaching into the past, the concert fed the human need for nostalgia. And for all present, the next Afropolitan Vibes, in December, couldn’t come soon enough.