| We
took our seats towards the middle of the already full rows
of chairs, and watched the opening acts do their thing.
Noone was really paying attention to the performances. Most
were busy chatting and drinking from the endless flow coming
from the bar, others sat in anticipation of the main event.
A couple of the acts were good, others were just played
out. Then VC stepped
onto the stage... (I didn't even know he was slated to perform).
He is always so good live and tonight was no different.
Nuff of my friends tell me about VC in his college days
and how amazing it is that he is actually doing music. I
love his material, especially that song he did at the International
Reggae Day last year - "Roll it...
Smoke it..." BRAP! BRAP!
Soon
after he wrapped his set you sensed big things were lurking
behind the wings. I noticed a slight whispering between
the camara men, and though the band was consistent for the
whole night, a few more instruments were added, like
the famous '5 string bass' brandished as an emblem of great
pride by it's owner Michael Fletcher- popular bassist/ producer
and musical director for Shaggy. Paula Ann and Francois
from FameFM rejoined on stage, making a little small talk
before introducing the Queen herself Marcia
Griffiths. I have seen Marcia Griffiths perform
on several occasions and she never disappoints. All those
years touring the globe with Bob Marley groomed her into
the world class performer she is today. She commanded the
stage in her regal purple and gold dress. She was beautiful.
She sang all her older hits which had all of us going down
memory lane together.
Despite
the greatness of her delivery onstage, the audience failed
to get out of their seats, something I attribute more to
shyness than anything else. We in Jamaica take a while to
warm up to most things. Midway
through her performance, she called a
certain young man on stage to do a duet with
her. This brought screams to all the fans who were living
it up seeing this 'older' woman singing her heart out to
this youth. She stopped in mid song and said to the audience
"Young blood" with a
*wink*. It was a nice touch. He left the stage after their
duet leaving us alone with the Queen again. She continued
with her most recent hits, ranging from
"Electric Boogie" - where she invited some eager
fans onstage to do the slide with her - to "Fire
Burning"- one of my favorites and "I
Shall Sing". Marcia managed to lively up the
audience and get them to their feet towards the end of her
show. As she left the stage our spirits were high in anticipation
for who was up next.
We had
little time to relax by the bar before the lights dimmed
again indicating the beginning of the next performance.
We all scrambled over to the stage as Maxi
Priest made his entrance. It was great seeing
him perform on familiar soil once again. Last time he was
here was a couple years back. I think that bottle throwing
incident at Sting must have really killed him. That was
terrible. Anyway, Maxi was not here to prove anything, but
he certainly left a great impression on us. He
is such an all rounded performer with one of the greatest
voices in the business presently. He gave us all the tunes
we love and I was beginning to think his hits could go on
forever. There are so many. He had everyone singing
along to the words of all his songs, "Close
to you", "Don't turn Around", "Say a Prayer for the World",
"House Call"... when he was joined on stage by
a fire ball of energy known as Red
Fox who exploded into Shabba's part. They did
"That Girl" which helped
raise the vibes a full notch, especially since people weren't
expecting The Red Fox Factor.
After
Maxi Priest's performance the stage was vacant once again,
so I took the opprtunity to go back stage, take a couple
pics and hail up Maxi and his band (did I mention his bro
sang backup for him?). I was on my
way back scurrying towards the front of the stage when I
ran into Beenie Man, dressed in a full white suit and bowler
to match. I had to get a picture with him, then continued
back towards the stage. By now, Beres
was already on and in full effect. EVERYONE was already
out of their seats and right up to the edge of the stage.
Beres proved that he just has a special effect on women
and men alike. He sings primarily about love and everyone
loves a good love song. The men were all holding on tight
to their women as they rocked away to Beres. There
were screams and hands reaching frantically out to touch
the King as he sang. Beres has graduated to a kind of 'Godfather'
for the younger generation of DeeJays. He just gets that
love and respect and on top of that he is a true veteran.
Selflessly,
he gave us all his hits... "What
one dance can do", "She
Loves Me Now", "Step Aside",
"Double Trouble" and
with each song came a more frenzied reaction from the crowd.
It
was like a drug the audience couldn't get enough of. A thirst
that could never be quenched. Unbelievable!! He slowed
down the pace a little by pausing to invite Marcia onstage
to sing their duet "Live On".
Everyone got to cool down a little and the vibe became mellow.
He took that as an opportunity to thank us all for attending
the concert series and spoke about the concert staged in
St. Elizabeth which was also successful which had featured
Buju Banton. He then invited Maxi onstage again to perform
the uplifting "How Can I Ease The
Pain?" before wrapping up his set with his latest
hit record "Rock Away".
A perfect ending to a perfect night.
We headed
out through the gates without a hitch, the only problem
we faced was trying to find the right shuttle bus to take
us back to the car park (*note to promoters- Label the buses
for future shows). We were all in such a good mood and decided
to casually walk back to the parking lot. Left with the
words of his last song I sang in my head most appropriately
' ...We danced all night, to the
songs they played....'
One
Love & Likkle More... Fyah
NB:
Whaddat.com apologizes for the poor resolution of this review's
pictures. You may look forward to our regular high standard
of image quality in the next review, and of course, every
one following. Bless! |
