AfroReggae are both a highly successful Brazilian band and a quite remarkable social movement. Operating across the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, they provide an alternative lifestyle to that offered by the heavily armed drug gangs who control these sprawling shanty towns.

Visiting the band in Rio earlier this year was an extraordinary experience: they were running cultural centres, dance groups, samba workshops and bloco afro drumming schools in even the toughest favelas, and had clearly changed the lives of many former gang members. In the midst of all this, they somehow have time for what they claim is now their secondary career, as internationally known musicians.

Back at the Barbican, after running music and anti-crime workshops in Hackney, AfroReggae put on a slick, multi-media show worthy of an expensive rock band. Violent news footage from the favelas or cartoons were projected on screens, while a 17-piece ensemble presented an exuberant revue that covered every favela style, from hip-hop to samba, funk to reggae and samba-reggae. The opening section was spectacular, with rousing bloco afro carnival-style drumming by a percussion trio led by Altair Martins, followed by furious songs about the 1993 massacre of 21 people by off-duty police officers that inspired the formation of the band, an impressive collaboration with Asian Dub Foundation, and then a switch to the more easy-going reggae. It was great musical theatre, but if they ever get time to rework their set, the band could consider following the example of Seu Jorge, and add some classic samba from the favelas in place of their soft-centred finale, which involved a video clip of Yoko Ono and a reggae-tinged treatment of Imagine.