Bloom 2019: Bombino, Shad & The Battle of Santiago

You do not want to miss Bloom 2019‘s headlining show featuring Grammy nominated, West African guitar legend Bombino; Juno winning, hip-hop innovator Shad; & Afro-Cuban, post-rock groove machine The Battle of Santiago.

This show is ALL AGES (minors accompanied)
Tickets: www.nlfb.ca/tickets
Full schedule: www.nlfb.ca/bloom/schedule

Bombino: Home. Where the heart is. For Bombino and most other Tuareg, there’s only one place that can be. In recent years, the rest of the world has largely written off that home as a hot and savage wasteland, a bolt hole for religious extremists and terrorists, a geopolitical video nasty with little to offer apart from the oil, gold and phosphates that lie beneath its soil. But Bombino would like us to take a closer look and think again. His electrifying jams capture the spirit of resistance and rebellion while echoing with guitar riffs reminiscent of fellow Africans Tinariwen and Ali Farka Touré as well as Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Page. Bombino was recently the first Nigerien to be nominated Grammy.

Shad: If you boil down Shad’s trajectory as a hip-hop artist up to this point, it all comes down to love. At a show, his people stare up at him with unconditional amounts of the stuff and he has used his platform as a rapper, a musician, and a writer, to search for and highlight all the love this hard world has to offer. Shad’s family settled in London, Ontario after fleeing the Rwandan genocide. He came up like a lot of first generation Canadian kids, with this cultural duality and the sense that this good country had some baggage that he’d have to unpack some day. He has released five solo albums: 2005’s When This Is Over; 2007’s The Old Prince; 2010’s TSOL; 2013’s Flying Colours; and 2018’s A Short Story About A War. The middle three were all nominated for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize and TSOL won the 2011 Rap Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards. With a rare combo of humour and substance, Shad’s records are a joy to listen to, full of pop craftsmanship that doesn’t turn a blind eye to human nature. Oh, and on a strange whim, he explored late eighties/early nineties chart-topping R&B vibes, on 2016’s Adult Contempt, as Your Boy Tony Braxton.

The Battle of Santiago: Toronto-based group Battle of Santiago combines classic Afro-Cuban rhythms and vocals with a distinctly Canadian post-rock spirit and sensibility. The result is a wholly unique sound that tells a universal 21st Century story, transcending borders while staying rooted in one city’s immigrant experience. The Battle of Santiago doesn’t skimp on their live show, either. Their multimedia show integrates digital visual art, live musical performance and audience interaction. The result is a one-of-a-kind organic audio/visual installation not to be missed.