Hey guys, last night we had the Congos / Max Romeo / Lee Perry / Sherwood concert in Athens, Greece and it was very good!
I arrived during the end of the Greek support band (which was not my cup of tea), then AMS started playing some tunes including “Golden Locks”, the Perry-Lennon mashup, the new Jeb Loy (“To Be Rich”), two tracks based on “Waiting In Vain” a drum’n’bass one and a cover by someone who sounded much like Leroy Smart, a track on the Wailers’ “War” rhythm, a bit of Pablo Moses (“One People”). Eventually the crowd (the event went sold out) started whistling as they waited for the Congos to appear.
Meanwhile, there was a great backing band to play for all acts consisting of Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace on drums, Dennis Bovell on bass, Black Steel (Mad Professor’s usual guitarist) on guitar, a trumpet player, a sax one and a keyboardist. Horsemouth brought mr. Ted Bafaloukos on stage (he’s the director of the classic “Rockers” movie, a Greek man from the isle of Andros) and asked us all to applaud “he’s my director!” - btw there was also a special screening of Rockers the night before in a cafeteria in central Athens with Bafaloukos and Horsemouth being present and also other members of the tour (like Cedric Myton who took many pictures with his camera). Horsemouth got cheered a lot by the end of the film (also during some scenes like the part when he speaks directly to the camera about doing things the rastafarian way) and bowed to us many times! I chatted a few words with mr. Bafaloukos regarding his recent interview in the Vice magazine and told him about the great pictures he provided “I’ve got many great pictures” he replied!
Anyway the Congos came onstage and they were great. Cedric Myton, Congo Ashanti Roy, Watty Burnett and a fourth singer were there and played mainly material from the “Heart of the Congos” ending with “Ark of the Covenant” and “Fisherman”. Many times Cedric asked “dub it up, dub it up” and Sherwood, who was behind the controls throughout the concert did some really good live echoing things! Only drawback that they played only for about half an hour. Same for Max Romeo who I’d seen before in concert - he was really good again and played “One Step Forward” / “Uptown Babies” / “Three Blind Mice” / “Melt Away” / “Perilous Time” & “Chase The Devil” accompanied by a female backing vocal duet that stayed for Perry’s appearance too.
Perry came onstage with his traveling suitcase and a wild costume - highlight of which was having about 10 aromatic sticks planted on his hat alight! He started with renditions of Marley tunes most of which were composed during their days of collaboration (i.e. “Small Axe”, “Sun Is Shining”, “Duppy Conqueror”, “Punky Reggae Party” or “Voodoo Party” nowadays) and others like “Exodus”. He surprisingly stayed quite close to the originals. The best part of his set was the following one with very nice renditions of “Soul Fire”, “Secret laboratory”, “Inspector Gadget” and “Roast Fish and Cornbread”. He did some of his usual hilarious speeches between some of the songs where among other things advised us all to go vegetarian or asked us what we think about scenarios that IMF must come to Greece (“boooo!” was the answer) and proclaimed “Greece must increase / Roman-Catholic priest must go down!”
The encore was fantastic with all singers getting onstage (Congos, Max and Perry) and doing “War Inna Babylon” and another tune (“Ital Woman” or something like that?) and then the show ended with Black Steel playing Happy Birthday on his guitar for Lee Perry turning 74 years old (20th March 1936 according to Wikipedia) and Horsemouth getting downstage barefooted and shaking our hands!
I tried to see if I could speak to mr. Sherwood at the end of the show, but he left 5-10 mins later probably because they had to travel to Thessaloniki to repeat the show there tonight.
P.S. Wrote this in a bit of a hurry so don’t know if it makes much sense!
Έχω πολύ καιρό να ανεβάσω live review, το παραπάνω είναι copy-paste από ένα γραμμένο στα γρήγορα e-mail που έστειλα χθες βράδυ για την προχθεσινή συναυλία.
Δείτε ακόμη τις αναφορές από το mixtape.gr και το avopolis.gr από όπου και οι φωτογραφίες.
I arrived during the end of the Greek support band (which was not my cup of tea), then AMS started playing some tunes including “Golden Locks”, the Perry-Lennon mashup, the new Jeb Loy (“To Be Rich”), two tracks based on “Waiting In Vain” a drum’n’bass one and a cover by someone who sounded much like Leroy Smart, a track on the Wailers’ “War” rhythm, a bit of Pablo Moses (“One People”). Eventually the crowd (the event went sold out) started whistling as they waited for the Congos to appear.
Meanwhile, there was a great backing band to play for all acts consisting of Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace on drums, Dennis Bovell on bass, Black Steel (Mad Professor’s usual guitarist) on guitar, a trumpet player, a sax one and a keyboardist. Horsemouth brought mr. Ted Bafaloukos on stage (he’s the director of the classic “Rockers” movie, a Greek man from the isle of Andros) and asked us all to applaud “he’s my director!” - btw there was also a special screening of Rockers the night before in a cafeteria in central Athens with Bafaloukos and Horsemouth being present and also other members of the tour (like Cedric Myton who took many pictures with his camera). Horsemouth got cheered a lot by the end of the film (also during some scenes like the part when he speaks directly to the camera about doing things the rastafarian way) and bowed to us many times! I chatted a few words with mr. Bafaloukos regarding his recent interview in the Vice magazine and told him about the great pictures he provided “I’ve got many great pictures” he replied!
Anyway the Congos came onstage and they were great. Cedric Myton, Congo Ashanti Roy, Watty Burnett and a fourth singer were there and played mainly material from the “Heart of the Congos” ending with “Ark of the Covenant” and “Fisherman”. Many times Cedric asked “dub it up, dub it up” and Sherwood, who was behind the controls throughout the concert did some really good live echoing things! Only drawback that they played only for about half an hour. Same for Max Romeo who I’d seen before in concert - he was really good again and played “One Step Forward” / “Uptown Babies” / “Three Blind Mice” / “Melt Away” / “Perilous Time” & “Chase The Devil” accompanied by a female backing vocal duet that stayed for Perry’s appearance too.
Perry came onstage with his traveling suitcase and a wild costume - highlight of which was having about 10 aromatic sticks planted on his hat alight! He started with renditions of Marley tunes most of which were composed during their days of collaboration (i.e. “Small Axe”, “Sun Is Shining”, “Duppy Conqueror”, “Punky Reggae Party” or “Voodoo Party” nowadays) and others like “Exodus”. He surprisingly stayed quite close to the originals. The best part of his set was the following one with very nice renditions of “Soul Fire”, “Secret laboratory”, “Inspector Gadget” and “Roast Fish and Cornbread”. He did some of his usual hilarious speeches between some of the songs where among other things advised us all to go vegetarian or asked us what we think about scenarios that IMF must come to Greece (“boooo!” was the answer) and proclaimed “Greece must increase / Roman-Catholic priest must go down!”
The encore was fantastic with all singers getting onstage (Congos, Max and Perry) and doing “War Inna Babylon” and another tune (“Ital Woman” or something like that?) and then the show ended with Black Steel playing Happy Birthday on his guitar for Lee Perry turning 74 years old (20th March 1936 according to Wikipedia) and Horsemouth getting downstage barefooted and shaking our hands!I tried to see if I could speak to mr. Sherwood at the end of the show, but he left 5-10 mins later probably because they had to travel to Thessaloniki to repeat the show there tonight.
P.S. Wrote this in a bit of a hurry so don’t know if it makes much sense!
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Έχω πολύ καιρό να ανεβάσω live review, το παραπάνω είναι copy-paste από ένα γραμμένο στα γρήγορα e-mail που έστειλα χθες βράδυ για την προχθεσινή συναυλία.
Δείτε ακόμη τις αναφορές από το mixtape.gr και το avopolis.gr από όπου και οι φωτογραφίες.
7 σχόλια:
O κυρ.avopolis φαίνεται να μην κατάλαβε και πολλά από ότι είδε...
Αυστηρό σας βρίσκω, Mr. Toilet! (ωραίο blog, btw)
Συμφωνω με τον Urban Toilet. Ο κυρ. avopolis μαλλον ηταν σε αλλη συναυλια (ως συνηθως). Περα απο το προσωπικο στραβωμα που εφαγα με τους κρετινους στην πορτα εχω να πω οτι ειναι γελοιο να βαζεις την ετικεττα One Love (με σκυλαδες φουσκωτους στην πορτα υπηρχε διαχυτη αγαπη σε όλο τον χωρο αλλωστε...) Reggae ideas (ηταν reggae αυτο ? αν ναι να μου κανουν λοβοτομη να συνελθω γιατι τοσα χρονια κατι αλλο ακουω εγω) Δεν φταινε βεβαια οι μπαντες για αυτα τα χαλια αλλα οι διοργανωτες που σκεφτονται αποκλειστικα κ μονο την τσεπη τους...
Ολα τα λεφτα η προηγουμενη της συναυλιας με ολα τα ωραια ατομα στο Floral να βλεπουμε το Rockers. Τσεπωσα κ δισκακια υπογεγραμμενα απο Congos. Οποτε παρτε τα λεφτα κ βαλτε τα στον κωλο σας μαλακες διοργανωτες... Μου θελετε κ reggae συναυλια...
Frankie, η φάση που περιέγραφες για το πως βγήκες από το κλαμπ να πάρεις αέρα και οι γορίλες δε σε άφηναν να ξαναμπείς μέσα είναι άνω ποταμών. Ο χώρος όντως δεν ήταν κατάλληλος, ειδικά για τέτοια προσέλευση (έμεινε και πολύς κόσμος απέξω επειδή δε χωρούσε). Στο μουσικό κομμάτι πάντως εγώ έμεινα ευχαριστημένος.
ΥΓ. Δεν το ήξερα ότι είχες έρθει κι εσύ στο Φλοράλ!
Sorry για το επιθετικο υφος. Ησουνα και εσυ μαν στο floral? Τι κριμα να μην τα πουμε
Frankie, no problem, χώσε ελεύθερα όποτε θέλεις!
Και κάπου πήρε το μάτι μου στο Φλοράλ έναν τύπο με το βινύλιο του Heart of the Congos ανά χείρας... :P
Τεσπα. Ξεχνα τα.... Πάμε για άλλα..... Ites
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