Michael Franti & Spearhead = mfsh

Went to the Michael Franti & Spearhead show in Madison, WI. This was the third or fourth time I’ve seen them and it just keeps getting better. The Australian band Blue King Brown opened for them. Lots of energy there, and you just can’t beat two percussionists, especially one with two cowbells. One classy touch was when each of the Blue King Brown singers soloed the other two would disappear to stop drawing focus away from the other singer. Very considerate.

If you aren’t familiar with Michael Franti & Spearhead and like alternative, reggae, hip-hop, or jazz (they’re kinda all over the place, genre-wise) you might listen to or watch some of their stuff. They’re up on iTunes, too. “I Know I’m Not Alone” came out of a documentary of the same name that Franti did when he headed to Iraq and the Gaza Strip. I like their stuff because even though it’s obvious where they stand politically their message is about being open to other people and their ideas, loving each other as humans, etc. In an era where bands are always trying to tell you what to think it’s nice to have one that leaves you alone with your own thoughts.

Anyhow, the drum kit had “mfsh” written on it:

(photo courtesy of Jonathan J. Miner)

What is sad, though, is that I didn’t immediately think “an abbreviation for Michael Franti & Spearhead.” I thought “That could be some sort of new UNIX shell.”

Dork alarms are sounding.

In the Franti shell we’d replace ‘who’ with ‘iknowiamnotalone’, all the system accounting tools with ‘sweetlittlelies’, and ‘write’ with ‘yell’. Except when you run ‘yell’ with a parameter of ‘fire’ it’ll reboot the machine.

Okay, I’ll be quiet now.