Don't call it a comeback

Make no mistake: sound the trumpets, Shabak is here to rock the party!

By ARIE HASIT
shabak samech 88 (photo credit: )
shabak samech 88
(photo credit: )
They've said it twice before. But in 2000, when Shabak Samech announced "we're here again," it didn't have the same meaning. After all, when the group released Canaan 2000, its third studio album, it had only been two years since the gold-selling In the Candy Wrapper. So this time around, as Shabak celebrates its first album in eight years, the members spare telling us again. But make no mistake: sound the trumpets, Shabak is here to rock the party! Following the success of the kickoff concert last Shavuot, Shabak returns to the stage this Saturday night at Tel Aviv's Hangar 11, promising to make good on both parts of the name of the new album, Boom Carnival. "It will be festive, like a carnival (and if we're lucky, not just any carnival, but Rio's Carnival), and it will go Boom!" So promises Nimrod "Nimi Nim" Reshef, one of the band's four rappers, who recorded with rappers Kfir "Hemi" Artzi and Amir "Miro" Yeruham for the first time on the new album. "We're such a big group," Reshef explains, "that we need to treat every concert like it could be our last, and we need to make sure it happens just right." On that note, Shabak has spent weeks not only rehearsing, and perfecting its new songs, but also incorporating all four rappers into old songs (which in the past featured at most three of the band's rappers). Throw into the mix Mosh Ben Ari, HaYehudim, and Phishi HaGadol, who appears on two songs on the new album, and you know it will be explosive. But while the atmosphere of the concert might be the same, don't expect the same Shabak Samech that first put Israeli hip hop on the map with such deliciously named anti-establishment tunes as "Bananas" and "Mushrooms." While still filled with references to sex, Boom Carnival is the first Shabak album to not include a song whose sole purpose is extolling drug use. (not counting the satirical, Slick Rick-inspired "Balagan"). Why the sudden change? Apparently, thirty-year-olds think differently than teenagers, and the boys from Shabak are now older, respected in the entertainment world, and some are even husbands and fathers. It doesn't stop them from acting like teenagers some of the time, but it does give them a maturity that just would not have fit their earlier selves. This maturity is evident both in the lyrics (such as the Arik Einstein-sampled "What Was Was") and the quality of the music - still a mix of hip hop, rock, reggae, funk, and punk. Shabak seems to have mastered the way to sing about girls and weed through rapping expertise and still sounds its age. But most importantly, the members sound like they still have fun together. Many a reunion concert features bandmates who don't even pretend to like each other, leaving less than to be desired chemistry on stage. Shabak's show-time shenanigans, on the other hand, reveal a real adoration for one another. And even if the group seems to be more concerned with enjoying one another than putting on a show, Reshef assures that there is no need to worry as the audience always seems to be happy with Shabak's circus. Shabakgrooves this Saturday at 10 p.m. at Hangar 11, Tel Aviv Port, (03) 521-5200. Tickets are NIS149/249.