Chuck Prophet

Prophet’s onstage persona is entirely consistent with the combination of rage and hard-won jubilation that typifies his music.

On a day of extraordinarily depressing developments in world politics, it is up to the excellently named Chuck Prophet to remind us of the energy and determination necessary to stay hopeful. For nearly two hours, Prophet and his sensational touring band, His Cumbia Shoes, manage to accomplish this feat in the potentially trying circumstances of a February evening in Norwich.

I already knew that Prophet was capable of moments of genius - the song ‘Jesus Was a Social Drinker’ is a masterpiece – but left the venue blown away by how consistently excellent he and his band were: an exuberant, relaxed, joyful performance that was underpinned by a ferocious sense of moral outrage at the terrible state of the world. I’ve since learned that Prophet is a big fan of The Clash, and that makes perfect sense. The energy and dexterity of his and the band’s performance also bought to mind Bob Dylan’s best album: “Love and Theft.”

Prophet’s onstage persona is entirely consistent with the combination of rage and hard-won jubilation that typifies his music. He has an engaging, humorous stage presence that he uses expertly to heighten the impact of the songs. At times he was assisted in this by his bandmate Mario Cortez, as when the two of them – during a prolonged introduction to the song In The Shadows (For Elon) – make clear their views on Musk.

Throughout the evening, it’s clear that both Prophet and band seek to engage with the world around them, but not to become bogged down by it. Prophet sets out his stall in the excellent ‘Wish Me Luck’. The opening lines are worth quoting in full as they seem to contain a neat – and excellently expressed – encapsulation of his approach: “My life is an experiment that doesn't prove a thing/ I wake up every morning wondering what the day will bring/ Then I throw open the windows/ I fill up both my lungs/And I shout ‘Look out all you losers here I come’/ So wish me luck/ Even if you don't mean it”.

In these lines, and in his performance as a whole, he displays a defiant certainty about what truly matters, while skilfully off-setting this against an awareness that a degree of compromise is necessary for all of us to get along. Although during the more explicitly political sections of the evening both Prophet and his audience are presumably well aware that he’s preaching to the converted, that in no way lessens the comfort from being reminded that, no matter how dark the global outlook gets, there are many, many people equally horrified by what’s happening. Reacting, as Prophet and band do, with joy, humour and rage, seems to be entirely the correct response.