By Tanya Baston, Staff ReporterTANTO METRO and Devonte brought the third annual 'Port Royal Fish Festival' to an exciting close Sunday night. The duo was the last to take the stage and kept the audience highly entertained for more than half-an-hour. Even though the festival was not officially over, when the two left the stage after 11 o'clock, the mass exodus signalled that as far as the audience was concerned, everything was over. As a result, Renegade Disco's last lap was simply great music to leave to.
Throughout their performance, Tanto Metro and Devonte were able to keep the audience highly responsive even though there was hardly space to move. Evidently, the area before the stage had been packed by someone with several years experience in a sardine packaging plant. The crowd was tight. This was despite the fact that many of those who had turned up for the festival by the sea were making their way home. Most of the food had long disappeared down welcoming throats.
The duo displayed a lot of chemistry and worked the crowd to astronomical levels of excitement. A large part of this came forth when Tanto Metro declared that he was the man of many voices. To display this talent, Devonte then called out the names of various deejays and singers and Tanto Metro, in turn, imitated them. The audience grew increasingly interested as Tanto Metro moved from Baby Cham, to Sizzla, to Capleton and then to Mad Cobra and Spragga Benz. When he started singing Stamina Daddy in his Buju imitation, the crowd went wild.
The audience's frenzy would be repeated when Tanto Metro gave a very good impersonation of veteran deejay Junior Demus's distinctive rasp. It was his impersonation of Bounty Killer, however, that truly sent the audience wild, as, unlike with the other deejays, Tanto Metro preceded his Bounty Killer piece with a character build-up. The audience's response showed that it was well worth the effort that he kept the impersonations tight. Making none of them last longer than a few seconds kept the audience's interest high. Tanto Metro also impersonated Beenie Man, Admiral Bailey, Super Cat and Ninja Man before moving on to Gregory Isaacs, Luciano and Beres Hammond. He certainly earned the 'puuull up' he received.
For their encore, the due decided to go well outside their dancehall repertoire to keep the hype going. First they delved into opera and then into early rhythm and blues. As one man declared close to the end of Tanto Metro and Devonte's performance, "The man dem can work a stage! Dem wicked, man!"
The concert segment had been hosted by Jennifer 'Jenny Jenny' Small, while Fab Five provided musical backing. Earlier the Mighty Diamonds and Leroy Sibbles had also performed.
