No-Maddz closes off 2010 'Trod' at 56 Hope Road
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
The No-Maddz upped the ante and seriously staked their live performance claim in 2010 with the audio-visual recording and release of their live album The Trod and duly living up to the title (and their name) by charting an extensive concert trek.
While the No-Maddz focus on the spoken word, with more than a healthy sprinkling of song mainly from Oneil Peart, who also plays guitar along with the quartet's backing band, they have toted along a number of singing guests on their Trod.
Last Sunday night's 'Special' edition at the Bob Marley Museum, 56 Hope Road, to close off the 2010 calendar followed the formula, with guest bands Rootz Underground and Raging Fire, along with Floyd West performing with From the Deep.
On a genuine holiday night (with no work for the nine to fivers the following morning) and many entertainment options to choose from, the Holiday Special pulled in a less-than-impressive audience numerically, but a gathering which was obviously generally impressed by the performances. That included Raging Fire filling the wait for a generator to cough to life during an approximately 15-minute power outage very well, with a cappella song. But there was another kind of pause in the proceedings which damaged the concert's momentum considerably. This came between Raging Fire's blistering close and final performer No-Maddz, Gabre Selassie's good selections not enough to mask that a band sound check was in progress.
Great performance
When the No-Maddz opened with their take on Tosh's Rastafari Is, it was the start of a performance which had the audience cheering, but the time damage had already been done.
In the beginning, West took a humorous potshot at the audience, of a decidedly 'uptown' flavour, when he asked if there were any uptown people. Then he enquired if any downtown people were around, from places like Rema, Tivoli and Jungle, going on to sing "uptown people, they don't care what downtown people do". West made a strong anti-gun commentary, noting that "when you watch CNN and you see some green things flash across the screen ... they kill people".
Rootz Underground's Stephen Newland has trademark leaps which elevate his legs and his locks simultaneously, making for a memorable visual. On Sunday night, however, he stayed earthbound for the most part, singing about "the Rastaman experience, as I take the Zion train", as well as singing for the Unknown Soldiers.
Herb Fields resonated with the audience, there was a switch around as keyboard player Paul Smith went to lead vocals, Newland strapped on the guitar and Jeffrey Moss-Solomon went to keyboards. The slower love song Fire and Ice went over very well and Rootz Underground worked up to a strong end with Victim.
Raging Fire also had a strong end, after a start where, although the audience seemed satisfied with the roots music and lead singer Kumar's impassioned delivery, the lyrical content was average at best. There was an electricity crisis as they sang of World Crisis, the power going. However, with the drummer continuing to tap out a tune, Raging Fire kept going and the audience members singing and clapping along the unplanned break which did not break the event.
After the power was restored, Raging Fire was in excellent lover's rock mode, informing "girl I'm delighted to be in your presence once again". They hit a slow skank groove, the lyrical content noticeably up as they blended music, mortality and rebellion in one song, stating "on Judgement Day I will be playing music for the rebel/roots rock reggae music playing out in heaven".
Raging Fire came to an uptempo end to very good effect.
Trodding Jah road
Sheldon Shepherd had come onstage several times previously, as intermittent host. After the long break, the entire quartet was up, honouring Tosh with Rastafari Is, then going from the slow groove to the uptempo delivery of Miss Lou's Roas' Turkey.
However, it was their coordinated "po-coo-poo-coo", followed by the demanding "wha dis?!", which set the audience off and the No-Maddz were off and running with coordinated speech liberally laced with song. They went "trodding Jah road" and Shepherd related corporate Jamaica to his personal immediate post-Kingston College experience (Peart's guitar is purple, which may just be coincidence and not a 'Fortis' acknowledgement). There were chuckles at the line "and me really get frustrated".
Babylon Paper took a look at the income-generating process and, whether or not they needed to go to work for said paper later that morning, at a few minutes past one on Monday morning a few people were calling it a night even as the No-Maddz were into ladies poems mode, declaring "I'm in love with this lady".