The Wailers in the Big D

Last Wednesday, a group of us decided to make the annual pilgrimage to see the Wailers in downtown Detroit. I have seen the Wailers a total of 3 or 4 times along with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. The first time I saw the remnents of Bob Marley was at Tastefest in Detroit years back; a free concert in the middle of the city and the people jumping with love for the reggae style.

After getting off work, live music veteran PS picked myself, CC (a huge Marley fan) and the lovely JH (a.k.a. MiniMartha) up and drove us down to Union Street for dinner. Union Street is located directly across from Majestic theatre where the Wailers would put on their show. We drank some tasty Oberons and ate some excellent food (MiniMartha suggested the spinach salad with steak). We can thank MiniMartha for the excellent restaurant choice.

We headed across to the Majestic to take in the opening band called deSol, a latin-sounding, Santana-like band from Jersey. It was good music to set the pace for the Wailers and they even broke out Santana's Oye Como Va. They plugged their CD a lot. It was just funny to hear a bunch of Latin dudes announce they were from Jersey. Maybe I'm outta the loop on that one.

By the time the Wailers started, I had a few more beers and I decided to go back and chill with some of our other acquaintances there from the band Bump (www.bumpgroove.com) including CC2, EN (a.k.a. Ndz), and the Greek. They happen to be hanging out with a legend in his time Skeeto Valdez, the new drummer for Trey Anastasio's (Phish) new band 70VP, or Zooma, or whatever. Anyhow, I shook his hand, told him I looked forward to seeing him jam down in Columbus next month. Cool dude for sure.

The music was good, but there wasn't as much energy at this show as in 2004. And there just were not enough black people - way too many of us white people. So the show lacked a little energy, but we still had a lot of fun. They played lots of the hits we all know by Marley and the Wailers. Overall, a good time.

Jah lives mon!