Raggamuffin Festival

[Drunk Monk]

2/25/6

Stacy's doula client called right when Slutskaya was taking to the ice for the final round Thursday night. I don't know why exactly, but this year I really got into the Olympics, especially womens' figure skating. Stacy's client was early so we were caught off guard and I was scurrying to help her get her things in order and missed the final. Bummer.

Fast forward to Saturday morning and Stacy arrives just in time for me to catch a ride to and fro the show via Legbone's Babylon bus. Just. In. Time. Thank Jah. I was sweating what to do with Tara if she went all night. So I had a DD - DDDan to be exact. Niceness. We packed seven people in the LBB. It felt like the old deadhead times...

As for the show, Misty in Roots were great - dry & heavy like those golden Burning Spear daze. They understood the horn attack in heavy dub, opening with Vampire, a song I used to not like until Sinead showed me it's meaning. Unfortunately I got dehydrated and then caught in Rock Med getting water - oh this is a psyche case (nevermind the half dozen psyche walflowers behind me) - turned out it was just some kid who eat too much pot:
'will I forget how to breathe?'
'no, you're okay'
'i hate forgetting.'
'if you forget that you hate forgetting, it won't bum you out and you'll be fine'
'ok......wait. what?'
Anyway, putting him to sleep cost me the rest of the set.

I got spit in the face by this tripper gal we had in restraint. That sucked but it was only foam, no gobs, and I'd rather be spat upon by some cute dancehall gal than a stinky dreadlock hippie. We had her in restraint and carried her from the opposite corner of BGC, strapped to a backboard. That kept me right in her expectoration line of fire and she caught me right away, right on the cheek - not in any orifice thankfully and fortunately only once. She was fixated on Uma Thurman and came up with a great band name during her mantra cycling - Gandhi's Bitch.

Matisyahu was better than I thought. He can do roots, dancehall, dub, even beatbox well, and that's all I ask really. He preaches between songs, and had this great sermon about Kabbalah that I wish I retained better because it seemed spot on at the time. I was impressed. I hope ED still has that CD for me (although a friend burned me his live show, so if it's that one, nevermind).

I caught bits of the other acts, Gregory Isaacs, Wailers, Franti, but no one stood out. The reggae scene is so big now. There's this new movement in rasta fashion towards military red, green & gold paraphenalia like RG&G sargent chevrons and various spins on rasta BDUs. There were also pink Bob Marley baby doll shirts, presumably for the Dancehall gals. I saw them for sale, but no one was wearing them, thankfully.

All in all, a great show, even made better by a great gang of enablers. I mean friends. Legbone et.al. are friends.

[Drunk Monk]

Time for my winter dread flash, my oh-so-needed dose of Jamaica tropical base, without which I surely would not make it through the winter.

This year's lineup was strong - old school and rootsy, just the way I like it. Opening were Wisdom and Luna Angel, two local acts that I don't particularly care for. Wisdom gave me a cool shirt of a black fighting monk over the banner 'wisdom' which I wear to martial arts events to confuse people, but I still skipped their set. Luna Angel spends too much time trying to look like a hippie hottie, which normally I'd appreciate but she fails at it. Other highlights: Morgan Heritage is still solid, although it took me a while to recognize them. Eek-a-mouse is still silly. He's lost his vocal dexterity and only pulled off one moment that was genuinely dubby. The rest was just clowning. Culture tried, but after last year's loss of lead Joe Hill, his son stepped up apparently. He did the best he could under the circumstances. Steel Pulse rocked, but could have done with a stronger horn section. They used to have a tight horn section and I miss that. I remember seeing them in San Jose one night and at the Greek the next. SJ turned their horns to dissonent mush, so bad I almost bailed on the Greek show. But the Greek is kind to horns, fabulous acoustics, and SP literally blew the house down. This time, SP's Life without Music was the show stopper. I thought I'd be singing that through this week until the closing act. There were a few other acts that were enjoyable, but it was a reggae festival, so I've forgotten who they were.

The closing act was Bunny Wailer and at almost 60, the blackheart man still has it. He came skanking out on one leg and threw down hit after hit with razor-sharp turns of the band as they jammed from riddem to riddem - true Jamaican sound. It was a surprisingly sophisticated show. You had to know Bunny's music fairly well to fully appreciate how he was reinterpreting material. I could see some of my friends who weren't so familiar with Bunny's catalog getting confused by the riddem changes and totally lost by the lyrics. But Bunny threw some old BMW stuff (we do this in Feb in honor of Bob's b-day) and that brought things together for even the first-time reggae listeners.

RM was quiet for the most part - a lot of patients that needed to lay down. One woman came in passed out and her friend warned us that she always peed when she got like this and she hated being put in a diaper. We thanked her friend for the warning, wrapped her space in plastic, and then told her friend about interventions and such. RM surprised me with a b-day cake, which caught me totally off guard, since I wasn't even thinking about my b-day after just returning from a week at Tahoe. It was sweet and made for a special show. We also spread some of Buster's ashes in the truck - that probably sounds odd, but such was Buster. LB and his sig O gave me a ride home, which was also very nice.

[Drunk Monk]

Got there a little late because of the symphony. T said the building stank. "That's wet rastas, T..." She requested immediate withdrawal, although was bemused by all the RMers doting over her.
Alpha Blondy and Barrington Levy were advertised as headliners but didn't show. Typical rasta slack production.
Aggrolytes worked for a few songs for me - LA post-hip-hop two-tone. They didn't sustain their opening long.
Gentleman didn't register. RM was busy then. Lots of ETOH and ganga. Many had to lay down. No full on restraints, but some odd psych moments. Good thing the night krew was in the house (sans LB sadly).
Gregory Isaacs was good and old school, but only teased the RM reggae anthem Night Nurse, so that was a bit disappointing.
Midnite was stony and enjoyable.
Anthony B was solid. Awesome high kicking dancer - reminds I of Dick Van Dyke if he was a righteous rasta. When we went to JA, Anthony B's Fire Pon Rome was banned for its political incorrectness. So it became the song we heard the most because all the locals would slip in on whenever they could. I still love that song. If he played it last night, I missed it. He did a send up of the jamrock riddem, which was ok. Love that jamrock but no one takes it from Damien.
Closing was Eek-a-mouse. Bad bait and switch - Alpha Blondy for Eek. ouch ouch ouch. The 1st reggae show Mrs Dm and I ever went to was Eek at a small club in downtown SJ. He was hilarious. N2O reggae. Now he's a lot slower, more traditional riddems, not as cartoony, which is too bad, since n2o is (or was) his strength.
It was great to see me rasta bredren and sistren. I bought a JA web belt which I swapped buckles with the flat black web belt I got with the glynch at that nice military surplus store. JA belt and JA buckle together was a bit too loud for the ol' Dm, but split with the black belt, it works perfectly.
LBSO gave me a ride home again. Niceness.

[Drunk Monk]

The star of the show was the newly restored Fox. All that stuff you may have been hearing about how beautiful it is? True, all true. Its absolutely gorgeous. It's the most beautiful theater in the whole bay area now. You must see a show there just to see this house. It's amazing what $58 mill can do for a 1920's theater that's been closed since the summer of love.

This show was a shake of the tree - the leaves of which will be the healing of the nation - shake and see what falls out. RGMFN previously filled BGC, a 7000-seat house with large vendor sections. Fox is 3000, or so I'm told - and they couldn't sell it out. What's more, it's in the very heart of Oaksterdam, a block from Oaksterdam U itself and nestled within some half dozen compassionate medical clubs. If reggae can't sell in this 'hood, that economy is hurting.

Rootz Underground was good live, better than in previous listening, but Dm couldn't tune in because he was busy exploring the house and running the occasional call. Knaan, hell, wasn't even aware when he was on - must have been snooping or on calls or schmoozing or reconnecting. Julian, who dm was chastising earlier for being the only Marley bro that only imitates his dad, put out a good unique sound which dm only caught a tiny bit of. Must reevalute Julian. Scratch seemed on, doing some classic Marley riddems, but again, rm was busy and there was so much to see and do, it was hard to tune in properly. Stephen, who's known more for mixing, threw it down acoustic and it was awesome - had a great flute & sax accompaniment too. Really wish dm could have seen more of that. Dm almost wished he bought a ticket.

Rm was busy, mostly people getting lightheaded, nothing serious. There's this awesome floor vent system that shunts cool air in from the outside, so even in the thickest front of stage, it's relatively cool. That's amazing architecture. All theaters should have that. Why was that abandoned? The space for rm is awkward. There's no place to lie down a patient, which is a major oversight...duh. Right now, there's a neighboring area in construction to be a restaurant (scheduled to open in a year) and so patients can lie there next to the trash for now. :roll:

The Fox is set up to be the flagship venue for Another Planet. Dm imagines he might be crossing paths with Doom there soon. ED, tg, LB (anyone else go to live music here?) give dm a shout out if you plan to go.

[Drunk Monk]

Wow, did I miss Raggamuffins last year? It's on my 2010 calendar, but so is a few other random dates for the same day.

Anyway, I was there last night. Bunny Wailer stills rules dancehall. It was very irie, so much so that I'll take me a few daze to get my head sorted enough to give a proper review.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

You must be confused. You keep posting on the weekend.

[Drunk Monk]

I looked it up and last year I bailed because we went to see Avatar. We had just come back from a snow trip.

Greg, you are paying way too much attention if the weekend post is bugging you. Waaaay toooo much.