a'dam is the place to be

talib kweli, paradiso, saturday june 30th
me & mc got the old man seats on the balcony, dead center in the back... perfect to see the stage and the crowd filling in below. plus undercover enough to take swigs of the brandy in the flask. jean grae came on (after a quick set by frank 'n dank) kinda hyped and tried valiantly to get the crowd to rise to her level... however she underestimates the cumulative power of the herb on any amsterdam concert crowd - artists should know by now that a mass of zoned-out peeps swaying to good music is THE official amsterdam stamp of approval. but anyway she managed to get shit on and popping until talib came out. it was truly on from that point as the flow and the show were simply impeccable - it was lovely to see the crowd moving in unison, hands in the air, singing hooks to so many of his songs. nice touch: the big ass video screen behind the stage playing vids to some of the songs, while talib performed them synchronously (at least it looked that way from where we were). we floated out after midnight faded on the herb, the drank and the real hiphop.

ziggy marley, paradiso, sunday july 1st
we spent the day recovering and enjoying some further brews (witbier) in the park near the house. the Surinamese festival and the grub we hooked up was right, but before we knew it was after 9pm - the concert was slated to start at 8pm. we rushed to the Paradiso, and sure enough ziggy was already on and the place was jampacked. we found seats on the balcony on the left side of the stage, even better view of the band and with the whole crowd to our left. the place was rocking - ziggy and his team were on point and it was straight roots rock reggae. too bad we only got 3 songs before they tore! luckily, they returned quick for the encore which meant another 3 songs... gotta say every minute we were there was maximum vibes, beautiful music and energy, and again the crowd 'in tune' with the music. last song, 'love is my religion' was a tour de force ("i don't condemn i don't convert")! when ziggy left for good, we were starved for more vibes so staggered to Easy Times coffeeshop for a little ip with further roots music. gotta love it!


talib - more or less = massive tune!!!


ziggy - love is my religion = lyrics a gwaan!!!

pure niceness from common

common is the 'people's choice' for real

zimbabwe

"every man got the right to decide his own destiny..." - truth!!!

(Roots &) Culture

One of the first reggae concerts I went to as a young buck was a group called Culture, at some spottie in Oakland back in '89 I think. I was solo because believe it or not none of the homies wanted to go... Got there nice and early on via public transpo (always was a foot soldier), got a nice spot near the front of the stage, and soaked in the vibe. I got treated to a magnificent show, introducing me to the sweet upliftment music of Joseph Hill and Culture. Helllllla reggae concerts, borderline rasta-ism, a short stint on community radio and who knows how much student loan money spent on cd's along the way, and I can look back at that concert as the first time I really saw that reggae light. After that I always had to search for the next roots vibe concert to match the irie standard set there.

So it was with sadness that I stumbled across the news that the great Joseph Hill had suddenly passed away sometime last year, while on tour... R.I.P. to a great positive force whose music mos def made an impact and lives on!