Yawn, Mon

Listen, I love reggae just as much as the next guy, but there’s only so much irie I can take when it’s all coming at 60 beats per minute – for three hours. What is that? 10,800 beats. I think I hit my peak last night at about 10 grand even, and it was all over. I had to leave.

Last night was the Ziggy Marley and Donovan Frankenreiter concert in the Pacific Amphitheatre, which as I’ve said before, is a fantastic place to see a show. First, and I’m sure this depends on the performer, it’s not swarming with a bunch of preteens who text and have awful taste in music. Second, it is similarly devoid of the usual OC nightlife scene: club rats, tough guys, fish lips, and flat-billers. Sure, this might have to do with the fact that it was a reggae show, but the crowd was so warm. Smiling faces, welcoming, polite vibes, beautiful people, and an oddly familiar aroma – very pleasant.

So now that you understand the social concern, you surely understand that people are there to be roped in by the band and had the groove laid down on ‘em right? You get it, right? Not the bands, so much. Donovan Frankenreiter came back on stage to what seemed like an unexpected encore to “slow it down a bit,” to the audible chagrin of the crowd, who afterward, was sufficiently slowed.

After a quite leisurely, lengthy intermission – I guess they were just moving slow – Ziggy Marley finally came on stage to, apparently, slow it down even further, pausing to spout off the usual: “Governments should be afraid of their people!”

Yeah, totally!

“I and I will never fear Babylon!”

Woooo!! Next irie jam, mon!

A third set of this caused much of the already sleepy-time-prone audience to sit down, and for me to leave. I was about gyrated out. I have nothing to complain about, it was great. I just need to go listen to some Dead Kennedys for a while.