How do you say goodbye to your favorite music joint? A place you’ve called home for the past one year? For an event venue I love, I was surprisingly looking forward to this farewell party. I even left my friend’s graduation party at Jikonis on Kiambu Road just when it was heating up. She already knew it; there was no way I was going to miss the last underground party at The Backyard Bar.

As I walked into The Alchemist at midnight, I met others walking out of the backyard. They confirmed what I already knew – I had missed some of the live performances of the night. From 7pm, they had been serenaded by singer-guitarists Ach13ng, Udulele, Ayrosh, the dynamic duo Box of Beats, and the energetic Abaki Simba with their array of African percussions. All of these alternative Kenyan musicians had performed at The Backyard Bar before. It was an all-star edition.

At least my favourite Afrohouse DJ hadn’t played yet.

I stood at the entrance of the backyard making small talk as DJ Lasta played a mellow ragga set during the break. In the corner of my eye, I spotted Lusiche at the far end of the stage holding her bass guitar. Did this mean what I thought it did? Were the gods really on my side?

Like the law of attraction, my prayers were soon answered.

I instinctively squeezed myself to the front of the stage, leaving my chatty friends behind. That’s the best spot to absorb all the incoming positive vibrations. It was time for Cheif and The Marshalls! 

Secretly, this was the one live performance I did not want to miss. The backyard has been their home since 2017, and this would be their third time to play here – in September alone!

And on this final night, they made me cry. It was the third time in a row.

You could call them a reggae band but they are more than just that. The Marshalls start an energetic song and you never know where it’s going. They execute the most unique and intricate arrangements I’ve ever heard, with Empress Lusiche and Lion Cheif on the bass and rhythm guitars respectively. Meanwhile, the rhythm is maintained by Brian Gugo on Kenya’s indigenous drums and Lion Ouma going hard on the drumset. All burning with the fire of lions.

On this final night, Cheif and The Marshalls played their interesting interpretation of Easy Skankin by Bob Marley and The Wailers (coincidence, no?) The crowd seemed to love this acapella twist as we all snapped our fingers along. Their one more song was Skankin Sweet where Ouma took over as Chronixx. It’s still okay that we didn’t watch him live in Nairobi.

Hata hatukusikia vibaya.

Just like their most recent shows, they called a mutual friend on stage. Khoisan is not only a fellow member of Abaki Simba alongside Gugo, but also a talented MC. Together, they’ve been working on a collaborative hip-hop-reggae EP and tonight they gave us a teaser: Good Things. I absolutely love the easy-to-sing-along-to chorus.

Good things come to those who wait, if you know where you’re coming from. If you know where you’re coming from, then it’s easy to know where you’re going to.

Enough said.

The Marshalls’ positive vibrations were so strong in the air you couldn’t escape them. You felt them amongst the screams. You saw them in people’s faces full of ecstasy. The last time I felt this kind of potent energy was during Mandela’s comeback concert One More Time at The Alchemist.

Interestingly, Cheif and Mandela played together on that night. In both concerts, it felt like the mighty Sarabi band was back.

There’s one of their catchy songs that goes like undugu ni kufaana, si kufanana. Cheif mentioned it was inspired by Juma Tutu’s song Undugu. Because brotherhood is more than just coming from the same family.

Undugu, upendo, umoja, amani – the Marshalls chanted powerfully at the beginning of the song. Cheif then got into this spiritual zone where he closed his eyes and you could feel he meant every word he sang. I was so mesmerized by this ethereal power of music. He looked like a prophet on stage preaching what this generation needs to hear.

We lifted our hands while singing in unison “Together we stand, divided we fall”. This conscious music dug deep and unlocked a part of me that I was holding back. And at that moment, tears poured out of my heart uncontrollably. It’s like I was being healed.

My friends couldn’t help but tell me how impressed they were with Cheif and The Marshalls. How Cheif has grown not only as an exquisite guitarist but also as a strong vocalist. Even Matt Swallows who’s watched them evolve in the past year was extremely proud of them. He dared to call them Nairobi’s most exciting band. I had to agree.

As I recovered from the emotional storm that had hit me, the next DJ took over. Also new to the Kenyan underground music scene, Mia Zipporah started out playing at the backyard way before it became a bar. She’s also a filmmaker who made the inspiring NuNairobi documentary.

During this farewell party, she continued the vibe with NuNairobi hip-hop music featuring Marcus Wi (who was in the scene), trapper Tunji and the badass queen Monski. The bass-heavy music surprisingly swept over me. I started trapping with those who were still on the dancefloor. A way of releasing the trapped energy and emotions within.

Matt introduced the last band of the night – which happened to be his band. Kaya Collective has people you wouldn’t expect to be in one band: a British lead singer, Kenyan bassist, saxophonist, and trumpeters, a Lebanese guitarist and a Congolese drummer. This unique combo of musicians produces a funky fusion of jazz and punk rock that I have not heard anywhere else in Nairobi.

During their hour-long set, they gave us a taste of various musical flavours. We danced to benga, sultry soul, reggae, disco and even Nairobeat – their version of Afrobeat. For some strange reason, white people seemed to groove more to this kind of music. Some were so moved they went up on the low wooden stage and danced next to Matt on the mic.

Kaya Collective also played at the opening party of the Backyard Bar in June 2018. And I couldn’t help but think what a perfect ending this was.

At roughly 2am, DJ Raph took over. The underground party was still going strong. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t Suraj on the decks. He had made a brief appearance at the backyard earlier before he left with all my Afrohouse hopes and dreams.

Raph kept it mellow, as the dancefloor became more sparse. Not everyone gets his experimental electronic music which sounded more like his Sacred Grooves album launch party than his hyper Nyege Nyege set. It took a while for me too.

If aliens met with indigenous Africans, they would make the kind of music Raph plays. Slow tempo and bass-heavy beats decorated with African chants and electronic sounds. This eclectic mix inspired the last few people on the dancefloor to start chanting as well. Led by one South African.

How do I know he was South African? Well, he spoke fast in Zulu (or was it Xhosa), probably communicating with the ancestors. Meanwhile, I closed my eyes and let the vibrations take me away to higher extraterrestrial dimensions. The only way underground electronic music can.

The last act of the night was DJ Lasta, who I fondly call the lasta man standing. He either kicks off or plays in the middle, but always comes back to finish the underground party. For his final set at the backyard, he played his speciality – UK drum and bass that makes you jump around uninhibitedly. For a minute, he left the decks and joined me on the dancefloor. Where we shared our lasta dance together.

But the crowning moment of the night was unexpected. My friend Breathren and I had waited for the right opportunity to present something he had crafted to Matt (not Lasta anymore).

It was a tiny wooden door that was once part of his childhood cupboard. On one side, it had the ADA Creative Studios logo exquisitely engraved on it. Matt was so thrown back by this gift he had to sit down. I had no idea it would be such an emotional moment until he started wiping tears from his eyes. You could literally feel the love in the air.

This simple wooden door was a representation of ADA Creatives Studio. By opening the recording studio at The Alchemist’s backyard in 2016, Matt had opened his door to let us express ourselves. At the back of the door were thank you messages written by both musicians and music junkies who had been touched by this space. One message that stood out read “Thank you for changing how we hear music”.

Over the last 2 and ½ years, we’ve watched this underground music venue in Nairobi transform and evolve. 2017 was the beginning of the backyard events which showcased artists and friends of Matt’s independent music label ADA Records. Once I learnt about this concept after Nyege Nyege 2017, I would religiously join fellow alternative music lovers every month on a Thursday night for Backyard Bass. And we would let our bodies loose to hypnotizing drum and bass music from 10pm till midnight. Sometimes even till 2am.

In 2018, Percussion Discussion by Abaki Simba also became a monthly gig. Abaki Simba would play the main show and invite other live Kenyan artists like Luke Okecc and Cheif and The Marshalls to jam on stage.

In June, it was time to officially open the backyard bar. We didn’t know how long it would last but we were in for the ride.

With it came major renovations. The gravel floor got a cabro makeover. The white tent was replaced by an all-weather iron sheet roof that would vibrate whenever the bass was heavy, kinda like a music warehouse. Colourful lesos decorated the underbelly of the roof and potted plants danced in the corners, giving the backyard a homely vibe. And the most recent development was the intricate yellow lines running on the black walls, done by one Maina lines.

But it wasn’t about the colourful lights or the homely decor or even the minibar (which made life convenient instead of walking all the way to the main Alchemist bar). It was the unique musical vibes we felt every single weekend during the free underground parties. We were exposed to all kinds of world genres: old-school disco during Boogie Nights, NuNairobi hip-hop in Backyard Bass and underground electronic music during the DJ nights. The fact that there were few seats meant we were mostly on our feet boogeing until they finally gave in to fatigue at 3am.

By coming back here again and again, we made friends who turned into a family. A special family of rebels and misfits who appreciate live conscious music. No one here would judge your outfits or your habits. The only agenda was to let loose on the dancefloor, unleash moves never seen before, and get high on music. It was our little underground club.

Now our secret home was going to be no more. One of my new friends looked quite sombre about it – it was a happy funeral. The shocking news of the backyard’s closure had hit me a few weeks ago so I was simply enjoying the music vibes. It’s only a week later when I walked into the deserted backyard that the nostalgia hit me, quite brutally.

The only consolation we have is that Matt has moved ADA Creatives Studio to the coastal town Kilifi. That means we can always visit, especially during Kilifi New Year 2019. Plus he recently opened a new alternative club in Westlands called MUZE.

The Nairobi underground movement is not over.

Due to the vacuum created by the backyard’s closure, we’ve been forced to find new alternative music spaces in Nairobi – and we have. There’s the quaint intimate bar in Dagoretti Corner called Dagoz which hosts live Kenyan musicians every week from Wednesday to Sunday. It’s always a party there.

And just a month after the backyard closed, world musician Fadhilee Itulya and Vibe Tribe Africa opened a rehearsals space at Jamhuri Estate. Walk into KWETU Space (which housed Fadhilee’s Garage) and you’ll feel like you just entered home.

It’s as if the Universe planned this sequence of events.

Before leaving my underground music home that cold September night, I had to do one last thing. I stepped into ADA Creatives Studio one more time before it was all gone. Inside, it looked like nothing I remembered. The once colourful walls were stripped of the kitenge cushion exposing white walls and dirty tiles I had never seen before. All that was left were yellow streaks of gum and scattered remains of cushion. It looked sort of… ugly.

ADA is the space that introduced me to the 50 shades of Kenyan music: the cultural Abaki Simba, urban EA Wave, dancey Coco Em, funky Kaya Collective. The first time I entered this cosy studio, I was so scared of intruding that I stood outside the simple door for several confused minutes. It was Master of Abaki Simba who finally found me outside looking like lost sheep and let me in.

As I now sat in the inside room, the memories came flooding back to me. I remembered listening to Kerby’s masterpiece of an album Mapenzi Sio Dini before he released it to the world on February 14th 2018. I could almost see Ayrosh and Swiga again rehearsing with Tha Movement before their individual live shows. I can never forget Cheif and The Marshalls’ early morning rehearsals and being amazed by their unique arrangements and strong work ethic.

But the highlight was when a few of us were part of the first-of-its-kind NuNairobi Jerusalem streaming party. Two remote parties became one thanks to modern technology. I called it Boiler Room Nairobi part 2 – the underground edition.

As usual, I left the backyard with the Abaki Simba lions once they had set down the stage. It was already 6am; the morning light was creeping in and the early birds were singing their Sunday hymns. As we said goodbye to the backyard bar for the last time, I felt lighter than I came in. My soul had been cleansed with healing music and positive vibes once again.

It’s been a few months and I’m still not over it. I’m afraid of going back there and bursting into tears again.

Even though the Backyard Bar is but a sweet memory now, I’ll always remember what Matt said on that closing night. Love is the rejection of fear.

So, which one will you choose?

 

Photos by Cici Karasha