TRIBUTE TO THE LEGENDS, SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA - February 18, 2008.
I had not been this excited for a show since Knaan and the Marley brothers visited San Diego a year and a half ago. The lineup for this 2008 Reggae fest contained both legends and up-and-comers highlighted by: Gregory Isaacs, Don Carlos, Barrington Levy, Culture, Cultura Profetica, and the much anticipated headliner - Alpha Blondy.
The festival, formerly known as Bob Marley Day, pays homage to arguably the most "conscious" musician ever who has left an indelible mark on modern music. This annual show is performed in recognition of the lionized leader of a musical, spiritual, and political explosion that still reverberates more than two decades after his death.
The show itself was a roller coaster of near chaos, great music, and disappointment... in that order. I'll take it chronologically.
I rolled to the show with a little 23 y/o hottie across the street, 2 of her friends, and my boy, Nate, who came down from LA for the festivities. We sparked admirable-sized spliff over-looking the pacific and were on our way. We pull into the sports arena parking lot, and Sarah's two friend go to pick up there tix at will call while she, Nate, and I walk across the street to pull money from the gas station ATM before entering. Our Internet-purchased tix are in my pocket... but not for long.
In Shane-esque stoner fashion, I then slice my finger off. Nah, I'm just fucking with y'all. I take out the tickets and my money clip, set the tix on the ATM machine, insert card, complete transaction, put cash in pocket, leave tickets on ATM maching, and turn and walk away. Not until we reach the entrance does my stoned ass realize the tickets are not in my pocket. We had no idea where they were. You can imagine how infuriated Nate and Sarah are with me at this point. I try to blame it on Sarah, but the look she gives me only says, "My lips will never touch your penis again." So, we start re-tracing our steps in desperation. Back to the car. Inside-out full search reveals no tickets. Back to the gas station, scanning the ground the entire way (my hoodie pocket had a hole in it and this was the primarily suspected means of escape). About 40 min later, we arrive at the gas station de nuevo with fading hopes of recovery. As we approach the ATM machine, I immediately recognize the the folded sheets of yellow paper from my office printer which decorated that cash dispenser like an angel on top of a christmas tree! Recovery baby! Miraculous grounds for celebration and an incredibly humbling shot at my intoxicated mental capacity.
Consequence: We completley missed Cultura Profetica. Upside: Still a great lineup of reggae music and our spirits were back.
As we walked through the gate, first glimpse of the stage revealed Gregory Isaacs jamming "if you want to be my #1" in front of a backdrop of lions and red, black, gold, and green everywhere. Definitely a tight set-up. However, the venue as a whole was disappointing. This show needed to be performed outdoors. I have never been in space this large that was so densly smoked out. It was so hot-boxed in there, I would rate visibility at about 50 yards. Remember how Sho's eyes would start to narrow and he would just kinda chill out a bit while sitting at the scrabble table at 607 while the blunt circled him? Well, Sho would have been laying on the floor searching for any two-letter word he could get upon entering this joint.
The next four hours were amazing. Highlights and songs you need to check out...
If you have not listened to Culture, you MUST check these guys out!! They were the best of the day BY FAR! Listen to these ridiculous beats from Culture:
- Garvey
- Sweet Freedom
- Humble African
- Vacancy
- Holy Mt. Zion
Don Carlos:
- Natty Dread Have Him Credential
- Hog and Goat
- Oh Girl
Gregory Isaacs:
- Storm
- Night Nurse
- My Number One
Steel Pulse:
- Steppin Out
- Worth His Weight in Gold (Rally around the red, gold, blk, & grn)
- Chant a Psalm
Barrington Levy:
- Teach The Youths
Max Romeo:
- Socialism
The Melodians:
- Rivers of Babylon (They weren't there... covered by various artists)
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE DAY... No Alpha Blondy. Extreme bummer.
Second biggest bummer of day. No David Pendergast. Our phx compadre was missed gets a definite pass excusing his absence b/c we at SGLLP clearly understand the demanding obligations our profession often springs at the 11th hour.
In conclusion, it was a great show, but did not even come close to fulfilling expectations.
Recommendation, SGLLP representative must travel internationally to catch Alpha Blondy en vivo and remedy the tragic ending to SD Reggaefest 2008.
out...
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18 comments:
slackers are the worst bloggers. yall were supposed to give us the concert recap.
These things take time sir. The concert was just last Monday. Our writer might need the weekend to get his piece together.
WRITE UP...
As the spring season approaches. New life and new music go hand-in-hand. I would like to propose a CD exchange. I'm going to put together a disc of the above-mentioned classics as well as some of Alpha Blondy's bests. To start it off.
Then, I propose each participant puts together some kind of theme disc and distribute amongst SGLLP colleagues to keep all offices sharp to tight beats.
Slimster... is it possible to post mailing addresses for everyone somewhere on this blog site?
instead of mailing cd's, which is pretty stone-age, we can set up a "sendfile" account and restrict access to only the SGLLP members. It's free, quick, and with the number of slackers in this group, cd's by snail mail will never arrive.
Adam,
I'm hyped! Set that shit up. I'm so ready to hear some good stuff.
Last night I was chilling with a young lady who came over to hear my music. This girl hated 90% of it. I was in a bit of a haze so you know I was going way out there with it. Jumping from Femi Kuti to Miles to Sade to Flaming Lips. This girl definitely did not feel it, yet she could not put a finger on why she didn't feel the music aside from the fact that she didn't know the songs that I played.
Moral of the story: I needz to vibe with some open minded catz on this music ish again. This shared music account idea sounds like a nice vehicle for that. Hook it up!!
Sounds like a banger, really too bad Alpha Blondie didn't play. They were pretty hot in Rome, so I concur wholeheartedly about a international romp to catch them.
Was interested to hear your take on Culture. I've been getting down on their album Two Sevens Clash. They thought the apocalypse would occur in 1977, hence the title. They are absolutely amazing, listening to Holy Mt. Zion is like going to church.
About the cd exchange. Although mailing cdr's is a little outdated, I do not have the where-with-all to set up a system to exchange online, Adam? That aside, certain undesirable consequences with copy rights (which i do not believe in) and posting might arise. So, creating a mix and burning 10 copies every 8 months or whatever should be doable.
I'm looking forward to the first installment from the cd of the month club...
That show sounds amazing! I haven't seen any good live music in a while and I'm jealous. Your story about losing the tickets had me dying of laughter, remember that Second City show we went to where I accidentally threw 2 tickets in the garbage for the same reasons?.?.?. Good thing we at least manage to find things when we lose them.
I am down for the music exchange, although I admit I have not been discovering much new music lately. I will be good at helping people discover old classics though, especially if everyone is willing to branch out into the realm of rock, soul, etc. I have been envisioning a disc of original songs that have been recently sampled, i.e. The Animals "Misunderstood" (recently in the Common track of the same title), Nina Simone "Sinner Man" (in Timbaland "Oh Timbaland" and Talib "Get By"), etc. I think it would be cool to hear the original followed by the new interpretation.
Adam,
Where you at buddy? It seems like you know how to set this exchange up. Let's do it after either Dave or Megan research the legality of said proposed musical endeavor.
Slim
Sorry all. I was basking in the Cali sun for a few weeks and didn't have my computer or the requisite ambition to find this page without my bookmarks. Unfortunately, I'm back in the Midwest...and it's still winter.
On to the music:
I have an account on savefile.com. It's free to open it and you can create a project and upload any files, be they music, video, pictures, old law school papers that you want to share with the world, etc. Once you create a project, you are given a direct link to that project. This is the link you pass on to anyone you want to share the files with. I will start things off with a link but there are a few caveats:
1. I'm also severely out of the loop on new music due to my sabbatical in Cali. It might take me a few days to catch up. Expect delays...
2. Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (Pub. law 109-9) criminalized uploading to a PUBLICLY-ACCESSIBLE network any copyrighted musical work, motion picture, etc. etc. For our purposes, this means that the link to any created projects must remain in the family and must not be distributed via this blog, which is accessible to the public. So let's get an email list going and we can shoot out via email any links as we make them. Very limited network for the purposes of critique and discussion...smells like fair use to me.
Nice work Adam,
Maybe the blog can hire you as GC one day when we get some sponsors. This thing is is burgeoning beast if you ask me. With the journalist we have in the crew. I think we can stand next to anyone. Challange!!
Send that link around so I can upload some of this heat daddio!
Paz,
Slims
I nominate Tim for email webmaster duties. Everyone flood his inbox with your email address and he can send out a list email. that would be perfect for link distribution.
That's cool. I already have a Shady Group listserv. However, if you want to update, hit me up.
Tim
Juancho, I am baffled by your 607 scrabble comments. What are you talking about?
this blog is kinda stagnet right now...so i gotta recommend an artist i just found out about. he's probably been around forever. he was on dj. semtexs show last weekend. Joell ortiz. i was really feeling some of his rhymes, check him out for yourself, i've heard enough. copping the album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLI6O6i_vb8
He was on a Smif N Wessun track last fall called "Stomp". It was good.
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