Afro Punk Fest 2013: Featuring Wicked Wisdom – Unlocking The Truth and more – at Commodore Barry Park – Brooklyn, NY

Day one of AfroPunk, my press pass in hand, I swam to the front of the packed crowd. It was time to see Internet sensation, Unlocking The Truth, play perhaps one of their biggest live shows yet.

 

 

A heavy metal band composed of 12 year-old guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse, bassist Alex Atkins, 12, and 11 year-old drummer Jarad Dawkins. They’re shockingly young.

Opening with a prickly, slightly off-key rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” I started to doubt the hype and the sea of photographers freaking out in front of me. Then the band tore into their first song and I understood what makes them special. They’re literally just kids who love to play heavy metal. They don’t have stage antics or affect, it’s just the three of them, shyly playing.

Stomping drums and bass led into blazing speed metal. Suddenly, Brickhouse and Atkins threw their heads back, staring up while continuing to play sightless for several minutes. I tossed my doubt away. Playing another instrumental, “Faces You Wanna Be” they next launched into an unnamed speed metal song. 

Malcolm, the most self-aware of the trio, shredded the first minute of their last song, leading the way into the band’s rocking finale. The crowd roared and Malcolm looked out, wide-eyed. Jarad stood up and threw two of his three drumsticks into the crowd. They had proven themselves. But what really sets them aside from most bands today is their simple lack of affect. They are whom they are onstage and off, and that’s something to witness. 

I saw Wicked Wisdom next, because I liked a track I had heard online. I didn’t know anything else about them. So I was completely thrown off when Will Smith suddenly walked by. What the hell was going on? A white-haired madam of metal kindly informed me this was Jada Pinkett Smith’s band. Well, I’ll be damned! 

Suddenly, a high voice began calling out from backstage, “AfroPunk, are you ready to play? Are you ready to play-ay”. And then Jada Pinkett Smith ran onstage, like a banshee, hair flying and launched into “Yesterday Don’t Mean”. The crowd drank it up. The band’s skill and Pinkett Smith’s expressive energy was an awesome combination. She didn’t even care when they took away her dead mic and she had no amplification for a minute or two. She just kept singing and made fun of it.

Next was “Something Inside of Me”, a staccato song about sexual abuse. Wicked Wisdom wasn’t pulling punches. “How do you make this thing shorter?” JPS joked, adjusting her mic stand. “We haven’t played together in 6 years, but when AfroPunk called us we were so happy, because when we started in this game there was no AfroPunk (Festival).” 

Suddenly JPS was standing on the riot fencing in front of me for “Fakeness”. People went ecstatic. A guy started shouting on the fence, a couple rows back. Then he jumped onto the crowd and disappeared.

Like a wild banshee, Pinkett Smith roamed the stage singing, radiating charisma and sensuality. She seemed to look everyone in the eye. Midway through the last song “Set Me Free”, JPS spoke. “Women, you need to love yourselves and one another. Set us free.” When Wicked Wisdom finished playing, the crowd cheered with excitement.

Jada Pinkett Smith should stop what’s she’s doing and reform Wicked Wisdom immediately!

 

   More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Gabriel Barbaro-
Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

 

 

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