Damian, Stephen, & Julian Marley Set Up Shop at Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas

To celebrate the release of their compilation album, Set Up Shop Volume 1, Ghetto Youths International, which includes Bob Marley's sons, Stephen, Julian, and Damian, have embarked on a two-week tour.  I was lucky enough to catch them poolside at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on Friday.

Before yesterday trumped it, it was the hottest day of the year in Vegas, with a high of 115.  By 9pm, time the show was scheduled to start, it had cooled down to 107.  But the performance didn't begin until after 10.  There's a fine line between exploiting people for money and being just plain sadistic, and Hard Rock crossed it.  Sure, you could take a dip in their cloudy pool, but if you wanted a drink, you'd have to spend $30 for a cocktail or $7 for Bud Light.  Water bottles could also be purchased for $7, but thankfully the security guard let me keep mine.  It was even hotter within the crowd, so while mist machines could've helped to cool things down, the only ones they had were in the cabanas surrounding the pool that you could rent for an exorbitant amount.

The backing band kicked things off with an instrumental "Concrete Jungle," both setting the mood and proving their capability.  A hypeman appeared and introduced the first act: dancehall MC, Black-Am-I.  He performed both of his tunes from the comp, "Samson Strength" and "Modern Day Freedom," the latter of which allowed him to show off his singing skills.  Jo Mersa was next, but he'll need a bit more time to live up to his musical lineage as Bob's grandson.  Although he rocketed out with "Bad So," aggressively spitting fire like Buju Banton, the momentum couldn't be sustained for "Comfortable," where his sup-par singing voice and unique pronunciations of words rendered the song incoherent.  Christopher Ellis proved a more fruitful branch on his family tree.  The youngest son of Alton "the Godfather of Rocksteady" Ellis, Chris emerged wearing an Elvis t-shirt, and eased into Gregory Isaacs' "Willow Tree."  The UK crooner kept the lovers rock going with his own "End of Time."  Though the lyrics were quite generic, his voice was so smooth that you forgave him, especially when he closed by singing "I really got to thank you" multiple times to the crowd.  Wayne Marshall, a Jamaican deejay who's been at it for over a decade, was also feeling the heat.  "Las Vegas is hotter than Jamaica," he said with a smile after performing "OK" and "I Know."  He segued from "Overcome" into "No Letting Go," a tune by another Wayne, Wayne Wonder.  It was nice to finally hear the crowd sing along.  He wrapped up the medley with "Sufferer," a track he'd done with Bounty Killer.  Julian Marley finished off the first set with four modern roots songs, dancing around joyously, the light catching his dreadlocks as he spun.  "One of my favorite colors is green," he said, cueing green lights to bathe the stage for the marijuana anthem "Boom Draw."   He closed with the powerful "Jah Works," singing, "None of the riches of the world can stop Jah works," almost in direct defiance of the ostentatious, hedonistic city.

For set two, the band dusted off "Sun is Shining" before bringing out Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley for his opening salvo.  The four-song assault began with the incendiary "Confrontation" before transitioning into his Skrillex collab "Make It Bun Dem," which gave way to compilation-namesake "Set Up Shop," and completed with "More Justice," the crowd providing the "Read all about it!" to his "Extra! Extra!"  It was great to see an artist so genuinely enjoying the crowd participation, Damian politely asking, "Can I see the hands up one more time, please?"  Too many of the hands, however, were holding cellphones (and even iPads!) to record the performance, so many that it was like I was watching the show through a bunch of little TV screens.  It was just one facet of a shitty audience that included an obnoxious drunk wearing only briefs, who would periodically jump in the pool and then rub against you until he got back to his spot, as well as short girls who called me a motherfucker for blocking their view even though they were at the back of the crowd.  (I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you want to be in front of me at a concert, let me know that you can't see because you're short; not because I'm tall.  I didn't get to choose my height.)  Jr. Gong was able to transcend the assholes and the heat with a trio of love songs, with Christopher Ellis playing the Bobby Brown role on "Beautiful."  To ensure us he wasn't going all soft, he commanded, "This one dedicated to warriors only," before launching into the fiery "Dispear."  After a trio of Bob songs, the band kicked in with the organ riff from "Exodus" that begins "Move!"  "Oh, yes," said Marley, nodding his head.  He didn't feel the crowd was getting into it enough, so he had the band unravel the song and restart it, which actually subdued things even more, the only misstep Gongzilla made all night.  But he followed it with his best performance of the evening, slowing his rapid-fire vocals down to criticize politicians, scientists, doctors, and the media with "Patience."  His flag-waver spun the pre-'74 Ethiopian flag behind him, creating interesting patterns as he obscured the light.

Forty-six minutes in, Jr. Gong announced, "Right about now, we're gonna take the show up another notch," inviting his older brother Stephen to the stage.  "From Las Vegas to Jamaica," sang a heavier Stephen, launching into "The Mission."  The brothers found their way into "The Traffic Jam," and were joined by surprise guest Spragga Benz to finish the song and preview the new "Bongo Nyah."  They finished off the four-song run with "Jah Army."  Sadly, the medley included the only songs played from Stephen's discography, which was strange considering his top-billing.  He did seem a little dazed though, occasionally dropping lyrics, so maybe the heat had gotten the best of him.  He stuck around to help Damian with the rest of the set, and the duo were joined by all the Ghetto Youths for "Could You Be Loved," each singer taking his turn to toast.  Despite everything going on around him onstage, Jr. Gong was still fascinated by the crowd, remarking "Sweet" each time the crowd sang back the hook.  It was, well, sweet.

Gratefully, they didn't make us wait too long for an encore, Jr. Gong returning to take us down the "Road to Zion."  At the end of the road, we were welcomed to Jamrock, which invigorated the crowd in the way Damian had been yearning for the entire evening.  Splashes from the pool behind me soaked my back as we all cheered "Murderrrrr" together.  I was finally unified with the crowd, the perfect send-off to my Vegas vacation.

GHETTO YOUTHS INTERNATIONAL - 06.28.13 - HARD ROCK HOTEL LAS VEGAS

SET ONE (56 minutes) -

Concrete Jungle (Instrumental) / Samson Strength / Modern Day Freedom / Bad So / Comfortable / Willow Tree / End of Time / OK / I Know / Overcome > No Letting Go > Sufferer / Systems / On the Floor / Boom Draw / Jah Works

SET TWO (1 hour, 21 minutes) -
Sun is Shining (Instrumental) / Confrontation > Make It Bun Dem > Set Up Shop > More Justice / Hey Girl > Beautiful (feat. Christopher Ellis) / There for You / Dispear / Land of Promise / Punky Reggae Party > War > No More Trouble / Move! / Patience / The Mission > The Traffic Jam (feat. Spragga Benz) > Bongo Nyah (feat. Spragga Benz) > Jah Army / Pimpa's Paradise / All Night / It Was Written / Could You Be Loved (feat. Julian Marley, Spragga Benz, Christopher Ellis, Jo Mersa, Black-Am-I, & Wayne Marshall)

ENCORE (9 minutes) -
Road to Zion / Welcome to Jamrock

An Acoustic Evening with Ben Harper at Carnegie Hall

Wednesday night, Carnegie Hall hosted an acoustic evening with Ben Harper, the final stop on the 42-year-old musician's first solo acoustic headline tour.  I arrived at the legendary venue with enough time to peruse their museum (Did you know Carnegie Hall narrowly escaped demolition in 1960?) and a gallery of handwritten sheet music by composers (Terry Riley's crayon-accented, undulating staffs were my favorite.)  I ascended the stairs to find my seat on the left side of the dress circle in the Stern Auditorium, and gazed downwards.  The Perelman Stage was set with 13 guitars, an upright piano, and a vibraphone on top of a large rug.  A chair draped with a blanket sat in the center.  It appeared like the living room of a rockstar or a posh instrument store.

The playbill foretold of an opening act, singer-songwriter Grace Woodroofe.  Ben produced her debut album, the program reading, "In the words of Ben, 'You are not going to believe this girl.'"  He should have said, "You are not going to see this girl," because she never came out.  It was never explained why.  Who misses their gig at Carnegie Hall?

At 8:24, Ben walked across the wooden stage, chose his famed Weissenborn guitar, and took a seat.  He opened with an instrumental mélange of "All My Heart Can Take" and "Mutt," crescendoing to a series of palm hits on the body, which resonated off the walls nicely, before segueing into the first song Ben ever wrote, "Pleasure & Pain."  He selected a ukulele for "Blessed to Be a Witness," inserting the lyric, "I am blessed to be with you at Carnegie Hall," which elicited claps from the floor and balconies.  After "Witness," Harper traded out the uke for his '54 Stratocaster (So much for an acoustic evening I guess.), taking a moment to give a lesson on the Weissenborn, which is hollow through the neck, fretless, requires a tool to be played, and although it's more closely related to the cello, is considered a lap steel.  Ben relayed a text from a friend: "'I've never known anyone that's played Carnegie Hall before.  How do you get to Carnegie Hall?'  Before the text even got dry, I shot back, 'Lap steel.'"  Not two notes into "Excuse Me Mr." Ben stopped and gushed authentically, "Thank you all for being here very much."  It was during this song that I discovered the beauty of the room's acoustics.  Ben would occasionally reel back his head away from the microphone and sing to the room (A suspended mic dangling above the stage amplified some of this sound.), and it just sounded so incredibly rich and soulful, that I wish he had done the entire show off-mic.

The only problem with doing that would be controlling the volume of the crowd.  When people started clapping along to a song, it was covering the performance, so Ben changed the tempo, and hands dropped to laps.  "I'm always fascinated by time," Ben laughed.  Even whispers could be heard in the space, let alone the shouts of "WOO!" and "HARPER!" coming from the couple directly behind me. You're not at fucking Bonnaroo.  You're at Carnegie Hall.  Have some class.

Photography of any kind was not allowed during the show (That explains the lack of pics.), but pockmarks of luminance from cell phones were visible on the floor below.  Ushers would generally stop photographers by shining a flashlight on them.  When someone was daring enough to use a flash, Ben heard a commotion from somewhere in the crowd and remarked, "It's the flash picture police.  You're gonna go to the flash picture jail.  It's ugly.  There's flashes everywhere."  I can understand wanting to snap one photo, but there were some who just couldn't bring themselves to pocket their phones.  I wished it were 1891, when the hall opened, because it would've been purer.  The hum that accompanied the electric guitar also wouldn't have existed.

Segueing from "Diamonds on the Inside," Ben played new song "Masterpiece," which is a sweet love song with the chorus "Loving you is my masterpiece."  It was inspiring to watch Ben decide which guitar to grab for each song, so many instruments from which to choose.  He played piano for "Younger Than Today," and then traversed the stage to the vibes for a covers medley of Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" and Pearl Jam's "Indifference."  Ben shared his three career highlights: getting to sing with Eddie Vedder, seeing Solomon Burke perform an arm's length away, and Jeff Buckley (orgasm from the loud woman behind me) coming up to him backstage at a festival in France and saying, "You're gonna teach me some of that slide guitar."  He played a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," popularized by Buckley, to a standing ovation.  After the applause died down, he commented, "Jeff accomplished in one record what the rest of us are left here to try and do in a lifetime."

After the instrumental "Number Three," Ben closed his set with one of his signature songs, the pro-marijuana "Burn One Down."  "Not at Carnegie Hall," he advised with a chuckle.  At least he knew he wasn't at Bonnaroo.  Midway through the tune, he disclosed that Damian Marley once questioned him, "'Is it if you don't like my fire, or if you don't light my fire?'  I said, 'Damian, you know better than anyone, it's both.'"  When the song was over, Ben waved to the balconies, and exited stage right.

Two minutes later, he returned and took at seat at the piano to hammer out new song "Trying Not to Fall in Love with You."  He admitted that he was more excited than nervous to play Carnegie, explaining with a story: "These kids came up to me and said, 'You're playing 3-hour-plus shows.  You're like the new Boss.'  And I thought to myself, 'I'll be damned if affirmative action doesn't work.'  That's what I thought.  I said, 'No, branch manager.'"  The Boss had invited Harper to play at Bruce's Kennedy Center Honors, and described performing in front of Springsteen, Mel Brooks, Rober De Niro, and President Obama as "the ceiling of nerves."  In tribute to Bruce, he did an exciting rendition of "Atlantic City," turning the mic to the crowd to the crowd for the final refrain.

But that was only the start of what would be the 54-minute encore, where Harper reached back into his catalog to revive old favorites like "Not Fire Not Ice," "Power of the Gospel," and "Welcome to the Cruel World."  The show could have bookended with the instrumental "Exhale," but surprisingly, Ben brought his chair downstage, even in front of the suspended stage mic, to play "Suzie Blue" on ukulele.  I'd been sitting on the edge of my seat the entire evening, and when the song ended, it was only natural to stand fully and applaud the first musician I'd seen at Carnegie Hall.  Before leaving the stage, Ben looked out into the audience and said, "This city has defined me in more ways than any other city in the world.  Thank you all so much for a night like tonight."  Thank you, Ben.

BEN HARPER – 10.10.12 – CARNEGIE HALL (2 hours, 32 minutes)

SET –

All My Heart Can Take > Mutt > Pleasure & Pain / Blessed to Be a Witness / Excuse Me Mr. / Fight Outta You / Diamonds on the Inside > Masterpiece / Younger Than Today / Trouble Man > Indifference / Number with No Name / Please Bleed / Another Lonely Day / Walk Away / Hallelujah / Number Three / Burn One Down

ENCORE –

Trying Not to Fall in Love with You / Atlantic City / Not Fire Not Ice / Forever / Power of the Gospel / By My Side / I Shall Not Walk Alone / Welcome to the Cruel World / Exhale / Suzie Blue