THE TOWER CITY "T" PARTY

Local Afrobeat ensemble Mifune won't need to shell out for a publicist; a jittery manager at downtown's Tower City Center did the job for free.

The group was playing a noon show on the Tri-C JazzFest stage at Tower City on Friday when the mall manager ran up to the stage manager and demanded that the band members turn their T-shirts inside out or stop playing, according to band founder Jacob Fader. The nine musicians were sporting shirts featuring a drawing of George Bush inside a red circle with a slash through it.

"Our music is overtly political," Fader explains. The shirts, he adds, are "a visual aid for people who can't hear the lyrics."

According to Fader, "The manager was pretty irate. He said, 'This isn't the place for a political rally.'" The band refused to remove or invert the shirts and the plug was pulled only 20 minutes into their scheduled hour-and-a-half set. Fader's version of events was corroborated by fan Eric Schneider (who called Free Times as it was happening) and Tri-C spokesperson Greg Krizman.

A Saturday Plain Dealer report on the fracas was picked up at DailyKos.com, a widely read progressive blog.

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Mifune at Afro-Fest 2006 at the Beachland Ballroom (15700 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124) on Saturday, May 27. -- Anastasia Pantsios