The Music Type

Day 4, Sat. May 2, 2009 — Sly & Robbie: Reggae’s most famous rhythm section took to the stage in the middle of a sunny afternoon and immediately transported the audience to an atmospheric dimension of mysterious dub.  Accompanied by a spare horn section, consisting of trumpet and sax, with the trumpet player doubling as a vocalist for a number of the songs, drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare ran through their thirty-year catalogue of hits produced either for their own label’s band (The Taxi Gang) or for other artists. Songs like “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot”, “Ballistic Affair”, “Arlene”, “Shine-Eye Gal” and “Revolution” highlighted the duo’s heyday of the late ’70s and early ’80s when they dominated the Jamaican singles charts.  The second half of most of these songs would essentially be the dub version of the track; Dunbar, almost hidden behind his cymbals, would crouch down while tapping out intricate reverb-drenched rhythms, while Shakespeare stood in front of the drum kit in a long, black leather coat, playing what can only be described as lead bass. For the Dawn Penn hit “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)”  the bassist even took his frontman pose to the surprising next step by handling the lead vocal. This was reggae at its best, and Sly & Robbie demonstrated quite ably why their reggae skills are in demand to this day.

Gin Blossoms:

Guitarist Scotty Johnson of the Gin Blossoms is the only band member naive enough to bring his instrument to a bad neighbourhood

 Friday May 1st, Day 3

Paul Green School of Rock: Sunfest has always had activities and music geared towards the younger set during the weekend portion of the festival, and this year was no exception. Set up near one of the festival entrances was an area called Youth Park. And it was on its stage that students of the Palm Beach franchise of the Paul Green School of Rock reigned supreme all weekend,  drawing on their varied repertoire of classic-rock hits. In the weekends prior to Sunfest, the SOR put on a pair of concerts covering material by AC/DC and The Beatles respectively,  and selections from this material featured prominently during their Friday performance. Highlights include “Come Together” and “I Am The Walrus” from the Fab Four’s catalogue, and “Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)”, an early AC/DC classic. Also noteworthy was the SOR’s performance of Deep Purple’s “Hush” to close out that evening’s show.

Rock 'n' Roll means never having to have good table manners

Collective Soul: This Georgia-based quintet began its performance on with a couple of relatively obscure tracks, so they seemed compelled to sell this material with a lot of cliched larger-than-life stage gestures. All that fell away, however, once the band moved into its first big hit “Shine”. As the audience sang along with this ’90s rock hit, the band finally seemed to relax and enjoy the moment, and other hits such as  ”December” and “The World I Know” quickly followed. The band also featured a couple tracks from its upcoming release, and if this material is any indication of the album as a whole, it should be a good one. This concert was also a good reminder that the band has continued to enjoy airplay well past its original heyday in the mid ’90s, as the latter part of the performance featured hits such as  ”Run”, best known from the soundtrack for the film “Varsity Blues”, and 2004’s uptempo “Better Now”. All in all, an entertaining show for the crowd gathered by the Intracoastal.