Nicky Bomba sits alone onstage behind his drumkit. His dreadlocks bounce as he takes us through a global journey of beats, sampling sounds from Africa, Jamaica, Brazil and New Orleans. Good as it sounds, I'm hopeful the other instruments onstage will be played by others, and into the second song I am not disappointed. Bomba is joined onstage by a double bass player, and another drummer, while he himself takes up the guitar to sing about a Rocksteady Woman. Two more guys join him onstage to play the Djembe, casually ignoring a wayward blonde in a red dress who also climbs onstage and gracefully dances behind them. Usually security are good at stopping people doing that, but no-one does, and she leaves the stage when she wants.
It's a chilled, happy hippie kinda vibe at the Northern tonight. Bomba goes acoustic and leads his drumming crew onto the dancefloor. The crowd becomes excited and then chills out and sits on the ground. It's an unusual sight - crouching Nicky Bomba playing the wooden dancefloor with his drumsticks, bathed in coloured light, the crowd seated on the floor chanting around him. He gracefully accepts a beer placed on his drum skin by an idiot who walks into the centre of the group, and then goes onstage to play Bomba's drums up there. Again - no security to stop him, the performers get his attention and he sees enough sense to stop. There's no aggro, Bomba smiles the whole night, which was overall an enjoyable performance.
Have a listen on his Myspace.

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