Chicago Afrobeat Project comes to DeKalb tonight hoping to fill Otto’s Niteclub with infectiously kinetic dance music and – hopefully – lots of college kids.

“We’re definitely expecting a way better turn out than the last two shows,” said drummer Marshall Greenhouse.

The show continues the group’s “First Beat Wednesdays” series at Otto’s, where they will play on the first Wednesday of every month.
The group recently released a new record entitled “(A) Move to Silent Unrest,” and maintains a consistently packed performing schedule, playing scores of Chicago-area shows while also touring throughout the rest of the country.

Though the first two months of the series yielded smaller-than-ideal crowds, Greenhouse has high hopes for the band’s monthly trips to DeKalb.

“We know the people will be there and eventually it will work out,” Greenhouse said. “At shows with college students, the crowd tends to be drinking more, which results in more dancing.”

Afrobeat is a style of music developed largely by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti in the ‘60s. It fuses elements of American funk and jazz with traditional African music.

“It’s dance music, and whether you know about music or not, you want to get up and dance,” Greenhouse said.

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