It’s no shock that a Wailers show during Bob Marley’s birthday weekend is bound to be a party. When I arrived there were a few clusters of people hanging out throughout the bar, but the spaciousness was quickly eaten up by the massive crowd of people that came to hear the legendary band. In fact, I made the mistake of leaving my ‘front row’ spot, and was unable to claw and bite my way back up to the front.
I did have the pleasure of being front and center for Dave Bess’ opening one-man band set. I am always happy to see someone put a looping pedal to good use. All by his lonesome, Bess made full, energetic, dance-worthy songs with the help of his guitar, a basic set of cymbals and drum box, the occasional tambourine and a whole lot of electronic gear. Bess music clearly still has much of the sound that he has achieved with Public Property, but with a twist that is clearly his own. His set got people pretty riled up and the climbing anticipation didn’t end with Bess’ set.
Duane Stephenson, who released his album Black Gold in the latter half of 2010, also took the stage with members of the Wailers. He charmed the audience and amped everyone up one more notch. He also won bonus points from me by reminding the men in the audience to show some love and appreciation for the women in their lives. There was no lack of dancing or enjoyment from anyone that I could see. I even saw some couples up front getting lovey-dovey during Stephenson’s serenades.
The Wailers got a loud, excited reception when they hopped on stage to sound check and even more people crowded up to the stage, making the huge room at the Blue Moose seem like a shoebox. The Wailers didn’t need any warm up time and jumped in head first to performing Uprising in its entirety, with an unmatchable excitement and intensity. The crowd was clearly having a great time and I may have even seen a few rolling clouds of smoke over the crowd. But you didn’t hear that from me. I have a bunch of photos to share from this event, and I would have had more if the crowd hadn’t been relentlessly impermeable after I left my prime spot to refill my cup. I hope you didn’t miss this one.
*(Wailers photos are presently MIA…will add them when I figure out what the hell I/my computer just did…)
