Soul Rebels

Working a relentless 250-night-a-year touring schedule, San Diego's B-Side Playersshow up on Bay Area stages more frequently than a lot of local bands. Their infectious Afro-Cuban beats grind into downtempo reggae splashes, pushing a message that's as steeped in politics as it is in rhythm. With forward-leaning lyrics spanning everything from jailed freedom fighter Mumia Abu-Jamal to California's -- and the band's own -- borderland ethos, the B-Sides are musical revolutionaries bent on giving props to society's underdogs. But their quarter is hardly a one-sided coin: Moving the masses is one part getting people to change their minds and two parts inspiring folks to shake their asses.

Rhythm and politics -- but this ain't no Bulworth -- with the booty-shaking B-Side Players.

Details

Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27 and 28, at 10 p.m. Admission is $7; call 552-7788. They also appear this Sunday, Oct. 29, at the Día de los Muertos Fruitvale Festival.

Elbo Room, 647 Valencia (at 17th St.), S.F.

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More About

• Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Will Harper
• James Brown
• Sly & Robbie

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The band's vocalist, Karlos "Solrak" Paez, flips verse in both English and Spanish, backed by a solid Afro-Cuban percussion section. Solrak pulls double duty as resident poet and dance-floor inciter. But with the bristling instrumental chops that the other members of the band bring to the table, he's playing second fiddle half the time -- funk-laden horn riffs coalesce over a loping bass line, jazz-inflected piano trades time with wah-wah guitar. Elements of ska, soul, hip hop, and funk creep in among hip-stirring salsa beats.

Last year's stellar sophomore album Culture of Resistance put the B-Sides on the map -- that is, if living out of a van up and down the West Coast didn't. After earning attention and stage space from heavyweights like James Brown, Will Harper, and Sly & Robbie, the B-Sides' days of playing intimate small-venue shows are numbered. Smoke 'em while you got 'em.