Countless others will claim to have witnessed firsthand a Mbeu germinating into greatness.
Zimbabwean band, Mbeu & the Mhodzi Tribe gave an electrifying performance last Friday night, at Theatre in the Park in Harare; much to the delight of the attendees who confirmed this, by dancing all night.
It was indeed a great show, obviously well rehearsed, visually good, vocally incredible. Mbeu is vocally at his best, fun was had in riffs between songs that night. This young man Mbeu is with no doubt the next great thing in Zimbabwe’s performing arts considering they have only been at it for two years only.
One of the things that got me hooked on this particular live show was the ad-libs, solos, scats and plain old crazy messing about that made up the performance. Most of these were from the audience in response to Grammy on the bass coupled up with Willow on the super electrifying lead guitar as they correspond to the signature melodies of Afro-pop claps cooked up by Joy Watta the drummer.
Performing a mix of old known and new music from their recently dropped album, the band worked boundlessly across the stage to upbeat tracks such as ‘Ziso’ and ‘Wongorora‘.
Nandi, the beauty backing Mbeu on the vocals and percussion was on point. The pair’s playful chemistry was a perfect fit for most tracks and brought some fun into the park! At some point, Mbeu would walk into the crowd.
At first, I thought it was a ridiculous feat but ended up admiring the ridiculously mesmerizing feat.
Mbeu’s latest jam titled Hatizvimirire is full of life and his run of great live performances won’t be over for a while as he’s set to be performing on weekly basis at some of the hotspots of the capital, kicking off at Gava’s Restaurant in Belgravia this coming Sunday.
There have been concerts have been lit, where riots have been stopped, and where careers have exploded. This Mbeu performance germinated into an incredibly lively performance with feats of creativity and musicianship.
