SOUNDTRACK: LEIKELI47-“Money” Tiny Desk Family Hour (March 12, 2019).
This was the final show recorded at NPR’s SXSW Showcase.
The SXSW Music Festival is pleased to announce the first-ever Tiny Desk Family Hour showcase, an evening of music by artists who have played NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert, at Central Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 12 from 8-11pm.
Leikeli47 was the ninth and final Tiny Desk Family Hour act to take the stage at Austin’s Central Presbyterian Church during SXSW last week. So naturally, the charismatic, genre-smashing masked rapper closed NPR Music’s big night with as much intensity, joy and free-wheeling fervor as the moment required.
I hadn’t heard of Leikeli47 until recently when she did a Tiny Desk Concert. I don’t know much about her except that she wears a bandanna over her face (with eye and mouth holes–it’s pretty impressive how well it stays on), because she’s about the music, not the cult of personality.
This song is fun and bouncy but the lyrics are so blah–money, money money. I think the music is great, though–the TSA band jams nicely. And Leikeli47 herself is full of fun and verve.
Backed by the four costumed players who make up The TSA Band (Timmy Manson Jr: drums; Justus West: guitar; Simba Scott: bass; Portier: piano, vocals). Leikeli47 exhorted the crowd to dance, sway, sing and snap along through a five-song set that just kept getting lighter and more infectiously sweet-natured. The budding star softened some of her saltier material in deference to the setting — “The Lord knows my heart,” she said through a visible smile — and closed out the night with “Money,” a springy and appropriately titled banger.
I don’t think the song is enough of a banger, frankly.
[READ: March 22, 2019] “Run Me to Earth”
It is 1977 after 7 years in prison, Vang and Prany were finally released after pledging loyalty to the country. Their re-education was complete.
When they are released the guard explains that they are lucky to live where they do. They will have jobs that will make them work hard–under the old regime we were not working hard enough…corrupted by the Japanese, the French, the Americans.
They are to be self-sufficient–providing for their village which will provide for the country.
When they were arrested–the guard wondered why they resisted so long–they both had their fingers broken. Vang recovered but Prany lost the use of his left hand. Now Prany was twenty-five. Vang was almost 40.
A van dropped them off. They were free and had no idea where they were.
They were still in Laos. They were dropped off at a bus station and given working papers. They waited.
They looked in the garbage and found what they wanted–a box with money and a knife. They decided to walk rather than wait for the bus that never seemed to arrive. They were then accosted by a taxi–the only vehicle they has seen.
They were suspicious, obviously, but the driver took them to an inn. The receptionist asked for ID, but they just paid extra cash and said they were looking to get home to Vientiane.
They spent a lot of money in the restaurant. They ate more food than they had in years, savoring all of the flavors. They were also hoping to get the manager’s attention. But mostly they marvel at what being free is like. Even this middling inn was like paradise.
Then Prany, lying on the bed, was gripped with fear. He wondered if they had made a mistake tearing up their papers, not following the rules of their freedom. Would it have been so bad to work in the village?
Then there’s a knock on the door. Prany looks out the keyhole. It is the manager. He was older than they imagined–but they couldn’t forget their interrogator–the man who broke their fingers.
I felt that story was rather long and kind of slow getting to the point, but the payoff was well worth it and I wish I had been a bit more patient with the story, allowing these men to appreciate freedom for the first time in nearly a decade..
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