For years I never had to worry about making Halloween plans because it was just a given that we would all be going to see Medeski Martin and Wood play in New York. Over the years I saw MMW do Halloween shows with ridiculously special guests like Marc Ribot‚ Airto Moreira‚ Sharon Jones‚ DJ Spooky and the mightiest Afrobeat band around: Antibalas.
Knowing all that you can probably imagine how excited I was when I heard that not only was MMW reviving their Halloween tradition‚ but Antibalas was coming along for the ride. The news got even better when the band explained the plan for the night: an Antibalas set‚ followed by a MMW set‚ with a closing set featuring both bands (same deal for the DC and Philly shows leading up to the Hammerstein gig). Holy shit‚ right?
To get me even more riled up‚ MMW just released this video of the two bands rehearsing together:
Everybody say "yeah yeah."
MMW & Antibalas