At the intersection of North Moore Street and Broadway in downtown Manhattan is No Moore, a bar favored by well-heeled young professionals. The walls are exposed brick, the wooden floor is comfortably worn and, in the daytime, sunlight gilds the space through floor-to-ceiling windows. It's a pleasant enough place to drink, but No Moore has a split personality, and, if you like music, the real action is in the sweaty cavern on the opposite side of the wall. A nondescript doorway in the brick leads to this other world, and people who frequent the sunny side don't often venture into the sweaty side -- and those who come to No Moore for the music don't spend much time in the bar.
Between 1999 and 2001, the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra played no less than 70 gigs at No Moore -- and they probably would have kept right on going if the club weren't suddenly shut down for violating fire codes (though it re-opened later). The band is huge -- usually about a dozen members playing horns, guitars, keyboards, bass and loads of percussion. So much percussion, in fact, that it couldn't all fit on stage, and there would usually be a few conga players on the floor, lined against the wall, extending the band's energy into the audience.
As their name suggests, Antibalas creates a rambunctious mix of Latin (antibalas is Spanish for "no bullets") and African sounds. The band's founder, a baritone saxophonist named Martin Perna, assembled the earliest version of the band in 1997, just after the death of Fela Kuti. True to Fela's sound, the tunes Antibalas plays are long -- 10, 15 minutes -- and tight enough that you'll dance all night. The repetitive Latin and African rhythms lock down the dance floor, and the bass moves the collective hips.