By Jake Piercy
The Turkey Café on Granby Street was rife with activity on Thursday as it hosted Anerki, a monthly alternative night of music and art.
The night brought together people from all walks of life to appreciate a range of different artistic and musical outlet, as it aims to break down barriers between different age groups and cultures.
With performances varying from beatboxing and spoken word to world rap and live art, the pub on Granby Street was packed out for a night of alternative entertainment.
Calum Vaughan, 20, who beatboxed at the event, said: “It was fantastic to see artists of so many different disciplines working together, for such a bizarre yet coherent performance.
“This was my first time beatboxing in front of a crowd so the pressure was on, but I had a great time and cannot wait for the next event.”
One particularly outstanding performer was David Dhonau, from the band Billion O’clock, who played bass guitar and acted as a session musician throughout the night before appearing with his 3-man experimental hip-hop collective at the end of the night.
His band, whose actual name is spelt with twelve zeros instead of the word billion, play often around Leicester and made an excellent performance to round off a multicultural and contemporary night.
Another performer on the night was Roberto Dumitru, 18, who was born in Romania but raised in Italy, who was rapping in Italian due to not having a complete grasp of the language.
He said: “I was quite nervous about rapping in my language because I did not think the crowd would like it because most of them are English.
“But when I got on the stage and started to do my thing people seemed to like it and in the end I think I did quite well and everyone liked me.”
When asked how he thought the event ran as a whole despite being poorly organised, Calum went on to say: “The guy who runs it didn’t get a lot of time to put the whole thing together, so it could have gone wrong, but in the end he managed to pull it all together and the night was great.
“Overall I think the night ran really smooth and everyone seemed to have a great time, so I’m open to beatboxing at another Anerki event.”
The next Anerki event is being held on Friday 13 November at The Font Pub on Gateway Street, and will be playing all sorts of different kinds of music and experimental sound from around the world, as well as film and visual entertainment.
