Have you heard about the Afrobeat-influenced J-Pop band? They’re called Hello Kuti. But seriously folks, it’s a positively amazing thing that we can enjoy a tribute to the late great Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti in a setting like Pritzker in Millennium Park, however chilling the weather might be through one’s flimsy H&M safari shirt. While last night’s 90-minute set from Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 was technically billed as a tribute to his late father, it often felt like a full-fledged reincarnation.

Seun Kuti is the raw, more authentic Afrobeat heir, while Femi Kuti (who’s been touring the States for years) is the cosmopolitan contemporary musical offspring of Fela with major label backing. Seun Kuti, who emerged on stage for the band’s second tune, looks, dances and dresses a heck of a lot like Fela, and his poise and presence is as intense as Fela’s in the videos I’ve seen. Just take a look for yourself here and below. Seun has excellent bona fides of his own. He opened for Fela at Afrobeat’s HQ—the Shrine—as a teen and has led Egypt 80, which includes veterans of Fela bands, for more than a decade. He’s tremendously charismatic and it was hard not to join in his shouts of “Yeah yeah” when he wanted more crowd interaction. I think Seun’s voice is distinguishable from Fela’s–maybe gruffer, but it grew on me over the course of the night. His band was tight as heck, two guitarists kept rhythmic lines close with a constant percussion groove from the giant conga. If I had one complaint, it was that Ajayi Adebiyi’s drums were mixed way too far back: his well placed cymbal crashes inaudible and snare drum often irrelevant. But Kuti’s magnetism more than made up for it.

A little bit after 8pm, Kuti invited a crowd member up on stage, then another, and then a bit of an NPR-style “riot” broke out, meaning hippies, moms with babies, Nigerian expats and long-haired global music enthusiasts all got a chance to dance with the band on the pristine Pritzker stage. The security people had a total meltdown–they don’t usually even allow dancing in the aisles upfront at the venue. It was kind of a great moment but also indicated that the park needs to come up with a policy that takes the world music audience’s appetite for dance into account—more on that later. Once the stage cleared, the band went into another uptempo tune, but the sound system didn’t come back for a minute or two. All in all, a killer show.

I spent a bit too much time at the merch table where Fela CDs and Seun Kuti tees were going like hotcakes. Confusingly for some, there was not a Seun Kuti CD for sale, just a very fine “Think Africa” 12-inch vinyl maxi-single from Chicago’s own Still Music. Seun modestly billed it as “for radio DJs only” when he plugged it from the stage. Most surreal moment: Kuti’s mention of the band’s MySpace page.