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RAM from Haiti at Tropicalia

Multiflora Productions annual Flash of the Spirit festival music series presents the mythical Haitian voodoo roots rock legends RAM in Washington DC!

If you made your way to Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince almost any Thursday over the last 25 years, you would have been greeted by the raw and powerful music of RAM-ancient folkloric polyrhythms intertwining harmoniously with punk rock guitar riffs and swinging Caribbean melodies. It is at these now legendary sweat-drenched gigs where RAM established themselves at torchbearers of a voodoo rock sound.

Firmly rooted in a city that has seen much political upheaval, RAM has been a target of regime censorship, and has continued to be a voice for the people of Haiti throughout upheaval and change. One of the prominent bands in the mizik rasin musical movement, the band incorporates traditional vodou lyrics and instruments, such as rara horns into modern styles. The band performs in Haitian Creole, French, and English.

In 2018 RAM partnered with Arcade Fire for performances, recordings, and to parade in New Orleans as part of Arcade Fires Krewe du Kanaval.

Rasin is a musical style that began in Haiti in the 1970s when musicians began combining elements of traditional Haitian Vodou ceremonial and folkloric music with rock and roll. This style of modern music reaching back to the roots of Vodou tradition came to be called mizik rasin (roots music) in Haitian Creole or musique racine in French. In context, the movement is often referred to simply as rasin or racine.

8pm
$20