It was another 80 degree, late November day in South Florida. Red-, gold-, black- and green-clad rastas, hipsters and hippies alike gathered in downtown Miami for the first annual Bayside Rocks Festival. The featured three-peat of legendary headliners, Bunny Wailer, Steel Pulse and Toots, had the crowd abuzz with anticipation, but as act after act took the stage, it became painfully obvious that the set breaks and sound checks were taking longer than the actual sets. With a strict midnight curfew at the Bayside Park venue, time constrains forced both Steel Pulse and Toots and the Maytals to cut their sets far too short. Luckily, a few of the earlier acts who did get full sets like Midnite, Cultura Profetica and Bunny Wailer, threw down impressive sets.
Midnite took the stage around 5:00pm and laid down one of their dubbed out, roots and culture beats only to find that the main mic didn't work. Fifteen minutes later, they started up again, in front of a slightly deflated crowd. Before long, their thick, wompy basslines and the wailing work of Vaughn Benjamin had the fans back on board. When they broke into the classic, "Live the Life You Love," off their debut album, Unpolished, the entire amphitheater was bobbing and jamming to their vibe. Unpolished is a good word to describe Midnite. Their bare-bones take on the roots reggae genre is a call back to the early years of reggae before over-production and the excessive use of effects hit the scene. Midnite is touring the west coast and Hawaii in early 2011. More info at www.midniteband.com.
Different festival, same solid groove.
Next to the stage at the Bayside Rocks Festival were the Puerto Rican phenoms, Cultura Profetica. These guys recorded their debut album in the Tuff Gong studio in Jamaica, earning them instant street cred with any avid reggae fan. With some straight roots reggae and some jazz and bosa nova fusion tracks, Cultura integrates a splash of improvisation so rarely found in the reggae genre, and the crowd at the festival loved them for it. Wandering guitar riffs and meandering keyboard fills made their creative chord progressions really pop throughout the entire set. With all Spanish lyrics, some may be turned off at first, but the instrumental music alone warrants a listen.
After another long set break and extended sound check, with the infamous Bayside Park midnight curfew looming, Marcia Griffiths roared onto the stage. Marcia, one of the original I Threes who toured for years with Bob Marley and the Wailers, hasn't lost a step. She won the crowd over with her sheer stage presence. At one point, she stopped and asked for a moment of silence for our brother in music Gregory Isaac, who died less than one month prior, before launching into "Satisfy My Soul" and "Could You Be Loved" with the entire crowd singing along. With midnight drawing closer and three huge headliners to come, Marcia played herself off with a ten minute "Electric Boogie" complete with fan participation on stage, perhaps a questionable move given the circumstances.
By the time Bunny Wailer's band took the stage, setting the beat for Bunny’s grand entrance, the feeling in the crowd that was once anticipation had turned to fear. Rumors about the infamous curfew darted around the crowd as the clock ticked on. Bunny took the stage, glowing in a classic white robe with a striped cane in hand, preaching the "Rastaman Chant" as drawn out and heartfelt as ever. Song after song, the legend preached and healed, ever the crowd-pleaser. "Who remembers The Wailin' Wailers?" He asked at one point before bouncing into the energetic, ska classic "Simmer Down." "How do you know these songs??” Bunny joked, “Your mothers and fathers taught you these songs!" After about a forty minute set, he said he would play himself out to "People Get Ready/One Love," with the whole park singing along, but once he finished, he changed his mind. Bunny called to his band to set the beat, “Set it! Set it!” and hijacked the stage for one last song, a bumping rendition of "Keep on Moving."
Just before 11pm, Steel Pulse introduced themselves in reggae great style, with intergalactic ambient background music and a three minute medley of intros to about ten classic Steel Pulse tunes any self-respecting reggae fan knows by heart. The audio techs still hadn't fixed the loose wires, but David Hinds sang and danced right through it. "Steppin’ Out," "Life Without Music," and a few other classics made it out. The few songs they were able to play were great, but the show was cut far too short at 11:30pm.
Half the crowd had left by the time Toots boomed onto the stage with "Pressure Drop" around 11:45pm with only fifteen minutes to play before the Bayside Park's strict curfew. After an abbreviated rendition of "Sweet and Dandy," the reggae great addressed the crowd, "You all know what happened here tonight, with the time. Now they tell me I can play only three songs, and I'm the headliner." He boomed through another classic, "54-46," taking time to joke around with the crowd and teach them their part in the call and response section of the song. When he attempted to start a fourth song, the powers that be cut the power to the stage. In true gentleman form, Toots stayed on stage to thank the fans and shake their hands.
They cut the power on the godfather of reggae at 12:03am November 21st, 2010 and left a bad taste in the mouth of every fan present. If there is a second annual Bayside Rocks Festival, hopefully the production team can schedule the acts better, and hopefully some of the reggae greats who were at this festival can give the city and the festival another chance to get things right.
UPDATE:
Producer of the festival, Alfonso Brooks, is currently working on making it up to the fans with another, free reggae show in Miami in the spring. More info to come via: http://baysiderocksfestival.com/
Toots and the Maytals promised via Twitter (@TootsMaytals) and Facebook to return to Miami to give the fans a full show soon.
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