Live Report: Ezra Collective – OVO Wembley Arena

There are moments in life when music, the musicians playing it, and the audience absorbing it, seems to completely transcend the space it is presented in. Tonight is a torrent of such moments – Ezra Collective bring unbridled joy to London’s OVO Wembley Arena, a stunning feast of musicianship that leaves every single person presents leaving with a smile on their face.

Perhaps we should have expected it. Ezra Collective are long-time CLASH favourites, and we’ve seen them live on multiple occasions – from those tiny early shows through to and KOKO headlinerbefore festival acceleration took them from small, out of the way tents to bona fide headline status. They’re battle hardened, and ready – a home-town show means a lot, after all.

There’s something about the way Ezra Collective approach this show, however, that feels different. The bond is more intense with the audience, a reciprocal feeling of wishing to honour the music, and the path it has taken them.

It’s an incredible show, with almost too many highlights to mention. An immense ‘Ego Killah’ is an early highlight, stretched out to the parameters of this vast arena, before landing back onstage with a thump. The tricks are all here – Ezra are able to make incredibly complex musical ideas seem simple, bonded together by riffs and motifs that move from Fela Kuti to ‘Welcome To Jam Rock’.

Each musician is allowed to shine, the interplay between the band almost telepathic. Drummer Femi Koleoso is essentially the frontman, his natural gravitas and eloquence helping to further the bond between the group and their audience. There’s a few guests, too – Kojey Radical emerges to voice their epic collaboration ‘No Confusion’.

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Tonight, all the alchemy, the subtle magic of Ezra Collective’s live shows feels heightened. The horns – and bass player – venture into the crowd at one point, making every single person there feel integral to the experience. It’s showmanship, and it also puts you mind of New Orleans’ second line traditions – this is music born out of the people, and everyday lives.

Femi perhaps puts it best during one onstage monologue, in which he emphasises the importance of joy in our lives. Happiness and sadness fade, he explains, but joy persists – it draws on our relationship with one another, and giving our lives to a higher purpose. It’s backgrounded by his faith – something he has discussed incisively in the past – but for each person present, it seems to resonate. Taking the crowd down low during finale ‘God Gave Me Feet For Dancing’, Ezra Collective lift the entirely of OVO Wembley Arena to their feet, then push them even higher. It’s a deliriously happy moment, but also an overwhelming one – ever since the pandemic, those communal feelings hit that little bit deeper.

As we leave, we’re left to music on the past few years of Ezra Collective, and the nature of joy. Each time we play one of their records, the group deliver different emotions – soulful dub, the rapture of afrobeat, the howl of intensity that jazz can bring. Witnessing their triumph, participating – as audiences do – during those epic shows, however, has been a true source of joy.

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Words: Robin Murray

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