If you had been walking from the Green stage toward the White stage on Sunday just after noon, you would have been forgiven for concluding that the amount of joy contained in a set of music was inversely proportional to the prosperity of the country from which it came. On the Green stage: the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars, a band of genuine refugees discovered in Sierra Leone and now managed out of San Francisco, and on the White stage: Isis, young white Americans with rage and angst on their minds. I suppose its no judgement on Isis, being that I'm a white American whose angst comes haunting back as soon as the distraction of the last Homer Simpson "Doh!" moment dies down in my brain and The Looming Existential Crisis recurs.

It must be something about living for the joy of one moment that makes African music so perpetually happy. While you can't fault individual white people for constantly pointing out in our entertainment that most stuff in the world is crap and the planet is a complete raging mess (true dat) and that it is the fault, as always in history, of the prevailing hegemonic power(s), there is a great point to be taken from the African perspective: we really do only have one moment at a time, and its good to find reasons to be happy.

It was a really good idea to give a group like this the Green Stage at 12:25 pm on Sunday. The sun was shining, we were having our bacon, eggs, and beer, and thats the moment when you want to be reminded its good to be alive, for most people at least (and I think that's still true.) The 8-piece band ran through a large number of international Afro-World music (the kind of African music with electric guitars and bass, not the kind with piles of animal-skin drums) styles that I don't know the name of. The word throughout the fest on Sunday was that they kicked ass, and I have to agree. The band was really tight, spot on, and those present were happy and dancing. You couldn't have asked for a better way to start the day.
-kern