Every Sunday Night: Obi Original and The Black Atlantics

Obi Original and The Black Atlantics are back at Icehouse on Sunday, November 1, as part of their AFRODISIA residency. It's a Sunday night, so it's the kind of thing you can roll into without worrying about a Monday morning alarm. The night is 21+.

If you're not familiar, the band plays a blend of highlife, Afrobeat, soulful grooves, and modern fusion. It's a sound that pulls from West African traditions and pushes them into something more contemporary, and it's a good description of what you'll hear: the highlife influence brings the bright, rhythmic guitar work; the Afrobeat provides the driving percussion and horn lines; and the soulful grooves keep it grounded in a way that works as well for dancing as it does for just listening. The fusion part comes in where they mix traditional and contemporary instrumentation, so it's not a museum piece—it's music they're playing and shaping in the moment.

Obi Original is the one leading the charge. He's a Minneapolis-based performer and cultural connector who's built his name around the rhythmic pulse and storytelling that run through the set. The Black Atlantics are the musicians he brings together to round that out, and the whole project is tied to his connections within the Nigerian community here in the city. That's a big part of why the residency is called AFRODISIA—it's about bringing those global sounds and stories into the heart of Minneapolis. Obi describes it as more than just a show: "This is a space for joy, connection and honouring the rhythms that connect us all."

It's a residency, so this isn't a one-off; it's part of a regular run of Sunday nights at Icehouse. Doors open at 8 PM, and the music starts at 9 PM. Tickets are $10, the same price whether you get them in advance or at the door. If you've been looking for a reason to get out on a Sunday, this is a pretty easy one.