Yesterday I ventured into Brooklyn to catch the first day of the 5th annual Afro-Punk Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Afro-Punk Festival features a combination of musical performances, extreme sports and film and ends with a block party in Brooklyn on July 12. The festival grew from the success of organizers' Matthew Morgan and James Spooner’s 2003 documentary Afro-Punk: The Rock. The documentary concerns the experience of black punks- both fans and musicians- who sometimes feel like exiles or outsiders in what has been a majority white genre. Since the film's debut, the creation of a comprehensive Afro-Punk website and the initiation of several Afro-Punk festivals in New York and Texas has gathered the fans and musicians together in what organizers call a movement.

Most of the big name acts (Janelle Monae, Saul Williams) perform on Monday, but Sunday sported a full bill of artists as well. The festival’s acts constitute an eclectic assortment of artists and bands tied together more by an aesthetic than a common sound. I had not had much exposure to Afro-Punk, and I assumed that the festival’s acts would be black groups performing in musical styles usually associated with white musicians and audiences. A brief perusal of the festival’s roster proved that hypothesis to be wrong. Each group has its own interesting version of Afro-Punk.

The event had a large stage situated on one side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's parking lot, where bands performed intermittently at seemingly random times. At the opposite end of the lot was a skate park, and in the center was a BMX area with skateboarding and biking contests taking place throughout the day. It was a mostly black crowd and fashion wise the alt. rock influence was evident, with gritty styles reminiscent of the East Village. While I was there, the BMX and skateboard set ups were drawing larger crowds than the music was. I like the combination of genres (sports, music, film) in this festival--and believe that the kids drawn to the sports will also enjoy an introduction to the music.

While I was there, three bands performed: London Souls, Peekaboo Theory, and Apollo Heights. These groups represented a broad spectrum of approaches to the rock genre. First up was Peekabo Theory a rock band with a DJ using scratches as additional percussion. The band came with good live energy; the shirtless singer twisted his arms wildly and alternated falsetto, with scream like vocals. The band had a heavy rock sound with fuzzy guitars, and sample usage which gave the music an industrial vibe that was at times abrasive and discordant. Overall their sound reminded me a bit too much of early 2000’s nu metal. Apollo Heights hit the stage playing music from their album “White Music for Black People,” incorporating prerecorded drum tracks with clanging guitars. Everyone and his mother in Apollo Heights is a guitarist; the band consists of four guitarists and one keyboard player, (who I guess also programs the drums.) I liked the band a lot, but it was definitely unusual to see four guitar players on stage at the same time with no bassist or drummer. The band threw an instrumental into their set, “Evergreen” which continued the reverb-drenched noise rock sound they came with. On songs like “Everlasting Gobstopper” the band’s vocalists sang off key at certain points but in an endearing way, as lead singer Daniel Chavis pounded his chest emphatically. The London Souls stuck out amongst the three bands, as their sound owes more to seventies' swagger of bands like Led Zeppelin than it does the Ramón's or Bad Brains. The group rocks for sure, but its relevance to the Afro-Punk concept was not clear to me.

Above the stage were celebratory banners that read “Afro Punk The Festival. The Movie. The Movement.” It does seem that black bands are becoming more prominent and plentiful in the rock scene. Even if their numbers remain relatively small, Afro-Punk musicians add important voices to a genre in which African American sounds have always belonged.