There was only one reason that a
self-confessed uncool kid such as myself would have been found at Trinity Night
Club on a Friday evening: a band. So who was it this time? The Parlotones?
CrashCarBurn? Perhaps someone had dragged me along – kicking and screaming – to
see Zebra & Giraffe? But not, it was not any kind of rock/alternative band
at all – it was The Wailers performing in aid of charity RhinoProtect. Yes, as in Bob Marley and The Wailers, just minus
Bob Marley. Now, I’m all about frilly pink dresses and high heels, and I don’t
have a single rasta/hippie bone in my body, so what exactly was I doing
here? Read back a few sentences, I implore
thee… it was the damn Wailers, for goodness sake! Now I hate to quote Lost (jokes,
I love to quote Lost), but who doesn’t like Bob Marley?! I don’t care who you
are, don’t even pretend that you haven’t jammed to ‘Jammin'’ or swayed back and
forth to ‘One Love’. The Wailers were guaranteed to put on an amazing
performance, plus the fact that reggae’s not for cheerleaders meant that I’d be
spared the horrors of having to deal with Cool Kids all night.
Opening acts Fox Comet and The
Rudimentals put on a pretty impressive performance themselves. Not my usual cup
of tea, I couldn’t help but be entertained by The Rudimentals, an eclectic
group composed of a couple of rappers, a hat-wearing, beard-sporting guitarist,
a couple of sax players straight out of a 1940’s jazz band, and a few other
assorted members. I wasn’t really following the lyrics – was the guy even
singing, or was he rapping? – but it was cool anyway.
The Wailers took to the stage
late in the night, and by then I was thoroughly regretting my choice in
footwear: what was I thinking wearing high heeled boots? (I tell you what I was
thinking, I was thinking that it was hell of a cold outside). My friends
discarded their shoes, but I wasn’t that brave – I was wearing socks adorned
with cat’s faces, and yes, I do still have some pride left. But anyway, The
Wailers…
…were awesome. After an instrumental
intro, I was left wondering if I had the complete wrong end of the stick here –
perhaps I was not going to hear all my favourite reggae songs…after all, Bob
was their singer right, and he’s kinda, well, dead. But I should not have
feared, for the second song had lyrics alright! Belted out by a couple of
dreadlocked Rastas, the music made me feel as though as I was on some beach in
the Caribbean, rather than in a dimly-lit nightclub in Cape Town. When they
spoke in those fantastic Jamaican accents, I could barely understand a word
they were saying – something about Africa perhaps? Cape Town? Rhinos? – but as
far as I’m concerned they could have kept talking all night.
Sure enough, some Bob favourites
soon followed, ‘I Shot The Sheriff”, “Get Up, Stand Up”, ‘Jammin’” …it was
impossible not to love the performance! I couldn’t believe my luck when the
first song of the encore turned out to the ‘Redemption Song’, one of my absolute
favourites. It was a peaceful, slow version of the song, performed only by the
lead singer and guitarist, and it was beautiful. The crowd joined in
enthusiastically “won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom/ coz all I ever
had/ redemption songs”.
The band are possessed of an
infectious stage presence, constantly interacting, and leaving the crowd always
wanting more. They fist-pumped, ran in place on stage, and headbanged those
dreadlocks all over the place, and I wondered how they weren’t completely
exhausted by the time the show ended.
In my opinion, they were the
perfect choice of band to perform in aid of a charity such as RhinoProtect. The
Wailers are all about peace, love and unity, things we could all do with a
little more of. I left the show feeling calm, renewed and ready to celebrate
life…of course, all that calmness may simply have been the result of breathing
in the second-hand fumes of some substances that weren’t strictly legal…
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