FANTASTIC NEGRITO – THE ESPY – ST KILDA – MELBOURNE – 15.03.2026
Review: Craig Eriksson. Photos: Jason Rosewarne.
Three-time Grammy winner, Fantastic Negrito has been touring around Australia for the last couple of weeks, performing at major events such as the Port Fairy Folk Festival and WOMADelaide. On Sunday evening we had the pleasure of seeing him and his fabulous band play their final show of the Australian tour in the Gershwin Room at The Espy in St Kilda. It was an intimate, captivating show that took us on a musical journey from the minute he walked out on stage. Negrito has a sensational 4-piece band, which played a 90-minute set of roots music that was an eclectic fusion of raw, traditional blues, R&B, gospel, soul, funk, jazz and rock.
Special guest duo Ally Row opened the show. They’re an Australian folk rock/alt-country rock band from Gippsland, Victoria consisting of Alice Fitzgerald and Rowan Sizer. Alice plays acoustic guitar and sings lead vocals on most songs while Rowan delivers backing vocals and plays electric banjo, foot-stomping tambourine, drums and harmonica. The acoustics in the Gershwin sounded incredible and for anyone who got there early, they were treated to a wonderful, vibrant 40-minute set. Ally Row performed numerous songs from their Something More (2024) album including the title track, I GOT MINE, MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, SOMETHING MORE and had the crowd singing along to THERE I GO AGAIN. Rowan sang lead vocals on the Americana song THE GREAT UNKNOWN with a spoken intro that sounded like it was straight out of a spaghetti western. They finished their set with a cover of Johnny Cash’s FOLSOM PRISON BLUES.
Fantastic Negrito emerged on stage and right from the first note, he oozed with personality, looking slick in his lime green striped pants and feathered hat attire. His name represents his third rebirth, coming back from death, this time surviving an almost fatal car accident. They opened with the raw, confrontational STEPSON and then followed with the gritty, blues-infused SCARY WOMAN, blending raw Delta blues, soulful piano, slide guitar and heavy drums. The song is about a woman that swings between extreme highs and lows and the song captured this emotional weight perfectly with Negrito’s falsetto moving between hoarse whispers to full-throated, intense roars. Negrito is a little eccentric and has a funny outlook on life. His sense of humour combined with his storytelling ability makes for an engaging artist. HILLBILLY LOVE was a soulful, high-energy blend of blues and funk. Negrito moves around the stage like he is possessed. His stage presence is unpredictable and mesmerising to watch, you can feel that music runs through his veins.
In between songs, Negrito talked about his long hard life and traumatic childhood as he delved into his past. His father was 63 when he was born, while his mother was 30. He tells us that his father stopped talking to him at the age of 11, not even acknowledging him when walking past him in the street. He just shook his head with a look of despair saying that he is still trying to understand the situation. Everyone in the room could feel the pain it has caused him and it bleeds out in his music. This led into WORKING POOR, a powerful song, followed by the redemptive, gospel, Delta-blues tune NIGHT HAS TURNED TO DAY, which is an uplifting ‘twangy’ song featuring honky-tonk piano and slide guitar reminiscent of Lead Belly and Skip James. The gospel flavoured I HOPE SOMEBODY’S LOVING YOU saw Negrito on keys and showcased his incredible falsetto, reminiscent to Prince.
The crowd were in complete awe of this performance and I could hear some in the audience suggesting that Negrito was taking them on a musical journey from Robert Johnson, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, James Brown, Sly Stone and Prince. One song even had the doom riff feel of a Black Sabbath track! Negrito spoke about how AI is taking over the world but said it will never be able to give you ‘this experience’ referring to his live performance. Throughout the evening, Negrito orchestrated the band, highlighting their incredible musicianship as they jammed and improvised with him. Special mention must be made of the 19-year old lead guitarist from New York who apparently approached Negrito a short time ago and said he could play all of his songs and was invited to join the band straight away. LIVING WITH STRANGERS is a powerful song about Negrito growing up in a large family with elderly parents. Negrito was the eighth of fifteen children raised in a strict religious Muslim family with a Somali-Bahamian father.
Other standout songs were AN HONEST MAN which is a gritty, mid-tempo ballad that explores the highs and lows of living on the streets, faced with violence and addiction and living with desperate hope. This led into the song OH BETTY, in which Negrito tells the story about his 7th generation grandparents, a black enslaved grandfather and a white Scottish grandmother (Betty), who had a forbidden common-law marriage. CHOCOLATE SUMURAI was fun and uplifting with Negrito singing “Eat less sugar and have more sex”. The defiant, funk-driven anthem of resilience BULLSHIT ANTHEM was a crowd favourite. Leading into the song, Negrito said we all put up with and take a lot of bullshit and we need to turn it around into something positive. Introducing GOOD FEELING, he said this song came about as his niece once asked him to sing a happy song for a change (laughed). Negrito was sweating profusely and kept joking with the band about whether he can make it through the whole set list.
CALIFORNIA LONER was beautiful, blending blues, funk, soul and psychedelia, while showcasing Negritos’ soulful falsetto. YOUR SEX IS OVERRATED was a slow-paced, Prince-influenced, psychedelic soulful track with lyrics “everything is so beautiful after the rain” and featured an incredible guitar solo. Negrito talked about his friend, the late Chris Cornell and how he gave him his first big break, for which he expressed his admiration and gratitude. That led into PLASTIC HAMBURGERS which sounds a bit like Soundgarden with a hollow-bodied guitar riff and Zep-like swagger. The encore had them come out and perform an emotionally-charged, haunting gospel-blues rock rendition of IN THE PINES with modified lyrics addressing modern trauma of the Black experience in America. A powerful song to end a truly magnificent evening. The amiable Negrito stayed around after the show chatting with fans, allowing them to grab a selfie get their merch signed, with many taking up the opportunity to meet this incredible artist.
SET LIST:
STEPSON
SCARY WOMAN
HILLBILLY LOVE
WORKING POOR
NIGHT HAS TURNED TO DAY
I HOPE SOMEBODY’S LOVING YOU
LIVING WITH STRANGERS
HUMP THRU THE WINTER
AN HONEST MAN
OH BETTY
HOW LONG?
CHOCOLATE SUMURAI – EAT LESS SUGAR HAVE MORE SEX
BEAT SALAD
BULLSHIT ANTHEM
GOOD FEELING
CALIFORNIA LONER
YOUR SEX IS OVERRATED
PLASTIC HAMBURGERS
Encore:
IN THE PINES
