Michael Franti

Michael Franti and Spearhead are one of my favorite bands. I was turned on to the music in 2002 and quickly became a huge fan. He is an amazing lyricist and an even more amazing performer and even more amazing social activist (or maybe not so much activist than voice). I finally got to see them live a few years back at the 9:30 Club in DC right before I participated in a March on the Pentagon war protest. Perfect weekend.

Since then, I've caught them every time they ever came near me.. several times in Richmond. And in the meantime, I've played the music for my family and everyone has fallen in love with them - young, old and disabled!

Two years ago, I was flying to Louisiana to take custody of my niece and nephews and I went to a DMB show in Manassas with Michael Franti & Spearhead opening the night before. I sat in the audience, completely overwhelmed with fear and resentment and felt like I was giving up my whole life. And then MF got on stage and introduced a song with a story about his son coming to him and wanting to move to New York, and he knew he had to let him go - he had raised him as best he could and now all he could do was send him in to the world to succeed or fail. And then he sung the song he wrote from that experience, which was beautiful. And in that moment, I had this epiphany that I was now entering into the most important job I'll ever do and that anything I am giving up doesn't mean a single thing anymore. And just like that, I was at peace. So I left the concert, a couple songs in to DMB's set, and walked into my new life.

So that's the background. Skip forward to last Tuesday. MF & Spearhead are opening for John Mayer and I knew the nola show was the night I was flying in for a birthday trip, but, I already had tix to the Cville show on 3/16. But on Tuesday night, MF announced he would be playing on the streets of nola before the show. I was excited, but didn't know if I could get there from the airport in time! Then they announced a contest for you to simply tell them why you NEED tickets to the show. I made a quick post and told my story (not the paragraph above though!) and also posted a video of my nephew dancing to their music. And I won! Next thing I knew, Michael Franti's facebook account had emailed me and asked some questions and the end result was he gave me tix to the nola show and the backstage passes for the Cville show for my family!

Everything travel wise worked perfectly on Wednesday so my friend and I rushed to the arena. The small acoustic show was amazing. After, he was meeting anyone who wanted to meet him. I was ambivalent about introducing myself - I figured I could just do it at the Cville date and I was slightly afraid that someone I admire so much may disappoint me. But I asked my friend if she wanted to and she said sure, so, we waited and she eventually asked for a picture which I then took. As we started to back away, MF looked at me and then came straight for me and hugged me.. now it would just be weird if I waited for Cville so I went ahead and said, "hi, I won your fb contest". He immediately acted almost like a fan of MINE which I have to say was an amazing feeling! He started saying "oh that's you! I want to interview you! And started calling his photographer over." Knowing that these videos wind up on their website, I kind of freaked out and asked please no. He was extremely gracious and asked if he could at least get a picture with me. At this point, the whole thing is just so surreal (he's asking ME to take a picture with HIM?) so of course I say yes.

Then I tell him the story above, his music's effect on me the night before I got the kids. I really couldn't tell you if it was coherent. But he did hug me at least two more times (it's like trying to hug the jolly green giant, I seriously need a step stool! lol). Then he asked if he'll see me in North Carolina (which was a mistake from our exchange of emails) and in that portion of the conversation it occurred to me that it was REALLY HIM emailing me this whole time! Or at least he was paying attention to what was being said.

The show that night was amazing... this is the largest setting I've seen this band in and they are the absolute perfect opener! Eventually, they posted a new episode of Frantv on youtube and he actually gave me a shout out at the end!

Then the Cville show came around, tonight. I wasn't sure if they were going to follow through on the passes, since I hadn't heard anything. But I finally got an email from a Franti contact.. only, she said "I just talked to Michael and he said he wants to give you a pair of tickets for tonight." I wasn't sure how to respond, since we had tickets - was this a "no" to the backstage pass? But then she emailed again and asked how many passes I needed so I replied stating we didn't need tickets but we had four people. She said we'd have "after show" passes at the door.

Toward the end of the night, as he was about to play that song I told him about, he started his normal intro, and then he said "and I met a girl recently. She's very shy. But she is taking care of three kids that aren't her own right now, whose parents can't be with them. And she sent me a message on facebook, and I want to say how amazing she is, and she's in the audience tonight." Well, that's what I remember, although I've heard he said my name and talked about my story in relation to the song. I couldn't believe he paid attention to my story enough to introduce that song with it!

So then we had to ask 47 people to find out where to go with our "after show" passes. We eventually wound up 'backstage' in an area you can't normally get to, but we were just stuck in the hallway. The usher said he didn't know where we needed to go, that someone may just come and get us. We waited for a few minutes, and I was just about to give up and leave when a British guy walks by and says "are you KC?" He then introduces himself as Michael's tour manager. He asks us to wait in a room. Then he comes back a few minutes later and says Michael wants us to COME BACK TO HIS DRESSING ROOM!!! Warns us we'd be going right past Mayer and basically not to make a fool of ourselves (as if, that tool!;) and then leads us through a maze into a room... where I hear Michael Franti say .... wait for it... "is that our KC?!" I mean, seriously?

And then there were introductions and the chatting with the kids, and he repeatedly asked us to sit down and just hang out for awhile but I wasn't comfortable with that b/c my nephew can be a handful. We took a few pictures, and then I said we didn't want to take up too much of his time and we made our way out. My mom's first question was how many other fans were backstage.. JUST US! He made that much of an effort - to send his tour manager to seek us out - to have just us in his dressing room! Have you ever even heard of such a thing?!

After the show, I recieved an email from Ben Renschen, the photographer/videographer from the show. He was sending pictures that he had taken backstage. In our brief email exchange, I was again so impressed by the character and spirit of the people MF surrounds himself with. You can tell these people are living their dreams, and it's so uplifting to be a part of that, if even for just a moment in time.

How amazing is this story? I mean, really? I have been a music fan for as long as I can remember and I have never had anyone go to these lengths to make a fan feel special. This man exudes peace and love and I adore him. And the band kicks some serious ass too. :)