Karun & Just A Band Rock The Elephant

Not even the looming rain could scare away the fans that showed up for Live At The Elephant with the now solo Karun and all-cool art collective Just A Band.

The event started at 9.00 p.m., about an hour after it should have. The equipment had been covered putting doubts on the open air event after the drizzle. But after introductions by afro-soul artiste Eric Wainaina, the show, ready for take-off was launched by Karun.
She had the daunting task of performing 90% new material, a position a lot of popular artists who have a lot of expectations don’t find themselves in. She met and surpassed those expectations.

With only one released song, Photograph (which is way catchier live), she held her own with a bank of R&B, ballads and more soulful and mature tracks than any teenager can do. The collection of catchy dance tracks and vocal show-offs reminds one of the early days of Ciara, specifically her first album, Goodies.

The set lasted for almost an hour with original material only punctuated by a brilliant cover of Michael Jackson’s PYT. And not a single note was missed. She was backed by the Super Band, and at one point, Jack Odongo, her mentor. She was later joined by the other Camp Mulla runaway, The MC Africa (formerly known as Taio Tripper).

At the end of her set, she announced that she would be leaving for the U.S. to attend school at Carlifonia Tech. And behind she will leave a memento, her debut solo album which is set to be released on the 16th of this month. That will make it two albums within a year after FuNKYToWN with Camp Mulla in late last year. Not something any 19-year old can boast of. Not bad we’d only previously heard solo on covers and End of the Night (Party Don’t Stop II). That I would say is the album to watch out for this year. One song I was looking forward to was Mwanawe (with rapper, singer and producer Dora) but it was not performed.

After a short break, Just A Band took to the stage and performed the best of their tracks from the usual set from Hey, Huff+Puff and Ha-He to surprises like Migingo Express and Have You Seen Her, performed by Lisa Oduor Noah who helped out with other tracks throughout the evening.

The crown of the set was the love song Probably  For Lovers which turned into a lingala dance-off complete with an unlikely ‘banabakongo’ hypeman, Boddhi Satva.

They also performed the unreleased but oft performed Love Is On Our Side and finished off with the ultimate party-ender Get Down. But the band had to stay on after the familiar end-concert protests, closing with the song that opened their latest album, Life of the Party with an Azalea Banks-sounding cameo from Karun.

Live At The Elephant is a monthly music showcase at the Elephant (formerly Kifaru Gardens). The Friday concert was the fourth with previous ones featuring Aaron Rimbui, Chris Adwar and Eric Wainaina among others. Watch out for details of the next one here.