San Francisco’s Afrolicious brings positivity, new music to Spokane’s Elkfest

Those who catch Afrolicious’ set Saturday night at Elkfest, the band’s first time in Spokane, will quickly learn that its live shows play more like parties than typical concerts.

There are usually no fewer than half a dozen performers on stage, and the crowd is often as close to the stage as possible, dancing just as hard as the band.

It’s all for good reason; Afrolicious was born from a weekly dance party at the Elbo Room in the band’s hometown of San Francisco.

As DJs at these weekly shows, which began in 2007, Joe “Pleasuremaker” McGuire and his brother Oz “Senor Oz” McGuire paid homage to music that came from the African diaspora, including blues, salsa, samba, funk and reggae.

They also combined what they were spinning with live elements like percussion, an emcee, a vocalist and a horn player.

At the same time, Joe McGuire was also working with the musicians in his band Pleasuremaker.

“At one point I had the vision to merge the two and make the band reflect the party more,” he said.

After this vision, Afrolicious really started to take shape outside of the Elbo Room. Since 2012, the McGuire brothers and the musicians from the club nights and Pleasuremaker have released original music, remixes and mixtapes under the Afrolicious name.

The band’s next release, an album called “Ways of Seeing,” is due out later this summer, though Elkfest attendees will get a sneak peek at the album when the band headlines the festival, which runs Friday through Sunday, on Saturday.

Some of the songs on “Ways of Seeing” have been in the Afrolicious rotation for years while others have come together over the last few years, inspired by all the changes going on in the world.

“Trying to reflect some of that movement that’s going on and try to bring some good energy to these changes and to the future direction hopefully that we’re all moving in,” McGuire said.

When recording the album, Afrolicious tracked some material live to capture the energy of those Elbo Room dance parties.

The size of the band, which fluctuates between eight and 12, made that difficult to pull off for every track, but it’s an element McGuire hopes to incorporate more as the band goes along.

Though he’s quick to note, “Everything you hear (on “Ways of Seeing,”), all the instruments, that is live, played by musicians.”

Along with their infectious energy, Afrolicious works to spread messages of positivity, love and hope through its music, the same themes that made those shows at the Elbo Room so popular.

“There’s a lot of negative energy out there so we’re trying to bring it back to some real roots, some positive human experience…,” McGuire said. “It’s this acceptance that there is heaviness in the world and there is tragedy but we’re still going to enjoy life.”