photos and words by Rhett Muller

As the music intensified, the dance floor became more crowded at The Zoo Bar Thursday night with Son Del Llano Trio and Paa Kow’s By All Means Band.

Couples moved their bodies together to the sounds of Cuban and African music throughout both performances, progressively making the bar feel like it was getting hotter as the hours passed by: and perhaps it was, too.

Dressed in white from head to toe, the lead singer and guitarist of Son Del Llano Trio, Rene Paula, seemed to have an angelic nature about him, and had come to share a piece of Cuban culture with Lincoln. Although I could not understand the words he sang, the feelings that the songs, lined with repeating guitar patterns and bongos, encouraged me to sway to the music.

While Son Del Llano Trio seemed to have the people on the dance floor in a trance, grasping onto their loved ones, Paa Kow’s By All Means Band brought an even larger crowd to the floor.

With the band members standing on the edges of the stage and some of the instruments and speakers not working, it was questionable whether it was worth packing nearly 10 people onto a small stage in a hot and sweaty bar. It was evident that they were going to “by all means” play no matter what.

Although the band had no room for themselves, Paa Kow made the crowd move with his afro-fusion beat on his full drum kit and the rest of the band’s ability to follow his lead. Not often do drummers take the frontman position of a band, but if it were to be anyone, Paa Kow fits the bill, with his drum kit set up in the center of the stage.

He is full of life, able to keep his drums on beat while singing and forms traditional African culture and style into a fusion of the new and the old.

See photos from the night here:

Rhett Muller is a Hear Nebraska Intern. He has begun the process of growing dreads. Reach him at rhettm@hearnebraska.org.