With all the free stuff to enjoy throughout the afternoon, I've never in years passed opted to shell out for the evening concert. This year was different. This year had Damian Marley.
Apparently, a good number of my closest friends still don't know how much I love reggae and dancehall music. I spent most of the summer talking about a Buju Banton concert that was canceled due to the extreme political incorrectness of his early music, which thankfully saved me from having to decide whether I personally should join the boycott against his performances. I also spend a good amount of my time singing along to my favorite songs until the lyrics make me terribly embarrassed or I admit that I have no idea what anyone is saying. So the fact that nobody thought I would be excited by the concert is a little baffling.
Anyway, people with more concert going experience, give me a normality check on the following items:
Drunk fourteen-year-olds: I guess I'm glad that kids got to see some awesome music. At $15, what better options do you have for an entire Saturday night? But if I have to deal with the crocodile-smile-bearing alpha male, the pseudo-drama-wielding queen bee, or the volume-oblivious nerd, I'd rather it not start out by them being drunk before they get to the gate. Time to dispatch the minjas.
Tables of free food: Did the Major Activities Board have money to burn, or was it a sweet marketing deal? I recognized one tray of deserts from The Big Easy (deserts haven't changed since it used to be Orly's), and Fuze fruit juice was prominently displayed, but I have no idea who provided the unmarked, unwrapped cookies. I'd estimate the snacks consumed at $10 price/$4 cost--not bad on a $15 ticket.
Four opening acts, at least, possibly more, since the people playing before 6 (the officially billed start) were playing really short sets. I think the early acts were local, and the last one, Gold Horse, was actually pretty interesting, particularly for their unique instrumentation (violin, bari sax, bass guitar, drums, and acoustic guitar). Then they were ushered off stage for DJ OCD Automatic. Maybe some people were excited by his electronica dance mixes, but most people were too busy huddling up toward the stage or off getting beer to care. It felt like ambient music, and it went on for over an hour. The Dirty Projectors, who actually shared the concert billing with Damian and Nas, were great, although I certainly didn't know anything about them. And my sense from the audience's reaction (and crowd density) was that not many people were there to see them. In other words, they were another opening act. The best that can be said though is that they made me want to check out studio recordings of their music, because goodness knows their performance could have been helped by a better sound setup (let's just say it was easier to figure out what Damian Marley was saying than what these guys were saying). But they're obviously dripping talent, and if you like the idea of a band somewhere between the B-52s, No Doubt, and The Talking Heads, check them out.
So how was the real show?
Fantastic! For just a minute, think of what might happen that could make a promotional tour for a collaborative CD suck.
None of the classics that you know and love? Nope. There'd hardly be time to do them all, but they were generous with their solo performances. Damian performed almost all of my favorites. I don't know as much Nas, but If I Ruled the World served as a good reminder of why he might team up with a Marley in the first place.
No continuity between the two artists performances? This was the brilliant part of it: they'd perform a few new tracks together, then one would disappear while the other did a few classics, then another would start his part of a new song, and his counterpart would pop back on stage. It was fun waiting for the next phase each time.
The new tracks suck? They don't. As far as I know, their only prior collaboration was Road to Zion, and while that might be my favorite right now because I've heard it the most often, I think some of the tracks might stand a shot at dethroning it. (Tribal War sticks out in my mind, and I haven't even heard K'NAAN's part yet.) If I have to criticize, it's that most of the tracks feel Marley-centric (a good thing from my perspective, as I am way biased toward Damian), often with a more reggae structure and instrumentation, with Nas performing a verse for the bridge. Nas' uniqueness definitely adds, although it's worth noting that the two don't so much flow together as offset one another, and the same counterpoint could get a little tiresome if you're only casually interested.
If you have the chance to see them on this tour, it's worth it. Marley has so much energy on stage, and he forces the crowd to interact with him. That's no joke; he stops the band well into the middle of songs if the crowd isn't responding right. I guess it's no trouble to him; he performs many of his classics so exactly like the recording that you have to wonder whether he could do it in his sleep. Nas is fun too, but I had to laugh when whipped out his blackberry to remind him of the lyrics for the second song. Otherwise, check out Distant Relatives, and maybe buy a few tracks. (Who still buys whole albums, anyway?)
