¡Mayday! + Afrobeta “A Very Miami Christmas”
Oh, Afrobeta, Oh, Afrobeta could you really be more awesome?
I struggle to see how that’s possible, what with your knack for raising the bar with every performance, keeping the Miami spirit alive in everything you do and making every show a memorable one. This past weekend’s “A Very Miami Christmas” show at Grand Central seemingly had it all. From the random club decorations wrapped with haphazard care to Yuletidey staples played with passion and flair, Afrobeta put on the quintessential Miami Christmas show.
Accompanied by Grand Central’s new light system and custom dot matrix graphics behind them, they started their set with a Smurphio rendition of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies”, a track made especially for this show and so damn cool, we went out of our way to get our hands on it for y’all (You can check it out above if you haven’t already). This led into many of their well-known songs, including ‘Do You Party’ (A tongue-in-cheek celebration of Miami’s party culture), Nightime, and a personal favorite of mine ‘Do What I Do’, a swing/ragtime anthem about the futility of bothering to try and tell Afrobeta what to do. Smattered throughout were some of their new material which I am absolutely pleased to say sounds amazing and is coming along very nicely. They closed out their set with ‘Oh, Christmas Tree (You Don’t Grow in Miami)’, which they’ve since released on their Soundcloud.
Fresh off of a nation-wide tour, ¡Mayday! took to the stage next to show their hometown love. The crowd welcomed them back home with open arms as ¡Mayday! went through their catalog including songs from their new album “¡MursDay!“with L.A. rapper Murs. One of the highlights of the night for me was when Wreckonize and Bernz jumped into the center of the crowd for a cypher which Bernz proclaimed he “hadn’t done since high school.” Between their percussionist showing us his moves during an instrumental break down to the 3-minute freestyle session with Wreck & Bernz, this show was worth every dollar. Speaking of dollars, might I add that the ticket was only $10? This is what music is all about!
Indeed, please keep doing what you do, Miami loves you Afrobeta & ¡Mayday!.
Happy Holidays everyone! Help keep music alive and support your local talent!