Whenever an older legend performs you know you are going to see a shadow of what once was. Maybe a cracking voice that you can barely recognize as the singing of one of your idols, or the artist is just burnt out on decades of touring. For example B. B. King was great to see live, but he had to sit down through the entire show. On the Rolling Stones “No Security” live album Taj Mahoul’s voice sounds about as appealing as the Steven Hawking squawk noise. To my surprise it was far from the case for Reggae legend U-Roy.
U Roy started out as a DJ in Kingston, Jamaica, working for some the biggest names in the reggae game, including King Tubby and Coxsone Dodd. Where he made the most headway was as a DJ that would toast over dub and instrumental records. So next time you are subjected to hearing “DJ CLUE CLue clue” over a generic and painful rap song and think “who the hell thought it was a good idea to give DJs microphones, you know who to blame.
Anyhow, the late night at the Echo‘s Dub Club had a heavy pulse from the beginning and left nothing more to be desired. Even from the start of the night, indie rockers, hipsters and a lot of people in between were all about shaking their asses and having a good time. A nice contrast considering a lot of reggae shows are packed with heads too stoned to do much but stare at the stage and look awkward. The phrase “those who feel it know it” kept on repeating in my head because it looked like everybody was feeling it. The place was a mass blob of people but all the different parts and an individual beat to them.
Hawaiian Lion opened up with the same band U Roy was later going to use. He had a good energy and covered Gregory Isaacs “Night Nurse” in Spanish which was pretty cool. But even from the onset people wanted to see U Roy and, as expected, got what they were after. U Roy’s voice was the same voice you hear on records from the 60’s. His famous “Whaw” yell made me think of the tension breaker yell Cereal did in the movie Hackers.” The man was still dancing too. He had the performers energy that you hope to see in a show. He exuded the energy of the world’s coolest grandfather. Big props to the people video taping for U Roy too. They were good peeps.
