Catching a Toubab Krewe show sober is a bit like listening to Paul Simon’s Graceland on acid as music from Africa’s townships, American arenas and Jamaican beaches twists itself into a swirl of rhythmic instrumentals that speak volumes in the world’s universal language. 

The Asheville, N.C.-based quintet’s free gig Aug. 16 at Levitt Pavilion drew an enthusiastic rainbow of humanity to downtown Dayton, Ohio. Ranging in age from 7 to their 70s, many of them were dancing on the concrete berm between the stage and the grass by the homestretch. 

Working as a five-piece rhythm section, Justin Perkins (kora, kamelngon and percussion), Drew Heller (electric guitar and keys), Justin Kimmel (electric bass and keys), drummer Terrance Houston and onstage emcee Luke Quaranta (percussion), curated a nine-song, 90-minute set from their four releases that, with a hint-of-autumn breeze carrying the music, temporarily transported at least one lost-in-sonic-ecstasy concertgoer to another continent. Or, perhaps, another world. 

Whatever the case, Toubab Krewe brought a motley crew of influences and delivered them with virtuosic intensity. There were very few solos – either that or the Toubabs acted as five soloists whose aural musings just so happen to turn themselves into full-blown compositions designed to blow minds.

“Stylo” was powered by triple percussion. The epic “Maliba” was dedicated to late kora master Toumani Diabaté and spanned the band’s many influences as it trotted across the globe in a quarter of an hour. And “Hang Time,” known to NPR listeners from “Milk Street Radio,” dug a groove so deep, dancers’ feet might’ve been close to Asia as they romped and stomped to the Krewe’s undeniable pulsations.

So, when a local musician moved from the crowd to the stage to transform Toubab Krewe into an eight-armed percussive beast on the encore, everyone was right back in Dayton. But what a whirlwind trip around the world it was.