CONCERTS
FIRST CONCERT:
At this point, best I can figure, it was family R&B band The Jets. Circa 1987 I’m thinking, because they were still on top of the charts when they came here.
I don’t remember much except being happy to be there, marvelling at the thousands of the people in the crowd, and being anxious about losing my friends and/or getting out of the concert in time for my mom to pick me up while also not missing any of the headliner’s performance lol.
Back then I’d have to guess-timate a time I figured the main act would be done singing, and tell my mom to pick me up at the venue at that time. Oh, the innocence of youth lol.
Fun Fact: “Crush On You” by The Jets was my fave R&B song at that time, and I had the hugest crush on the band’s lead singer, Elizabeth Wolfgramm. 👇🏾
BEST CONCERT:
I’ve been blessed to see a ton of amazing live concerts. Honourable mention (in no particular order) goes out to Beenie Man, Super Cat, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers, The Fugees, Air Supply, C&C Music Factory Featuring Zelma Davis & Freedom Williams, Capleton, Beres Hammond, Buju Banton, Queen Latifah + Naughty By Nature + Crystal Waters, Lauryn Hill (she was late af even back then but she kicked serious ass live when she finally arrived lol), Barrington Levy, Lionel Richie, Capleton, Peabo Bryson, Freddi Jackson, Run-DMC MC Hammer, Boyz II Men, and Lady Gaga. 👍🏾👍🏾
By far the BEST concert i’ve had the privilege of attending in my life this far, though, was easily Jay-Z (with N*E*R*D* opening) at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. 🙌🏾
I’ve been a longtime Hov fan from the early days, so seeing him live was a dream come true for me. And to make it better, that concert happened in November 2009, back when Jay’s “Blueprint 3” album was on top of the charts. So I literally got to see him perform hit songs from that album at the height of their popularity. ANDDDD he brought out Memphis Bleek and a very young Jay Cole to join him onstage as well. Near the end of the show he also brought back out Pharrell to join him for “So Ambitious”, “Change Clothes And Go” several other Jay + Pharrell collaborations! 😱 *mind blown*
I recorded a bunch of snippets at that show and posted it on Youtube. 👇🏾 You’re welcome lol.
Fun Fact: Drake’s “Best I Ever Had” was a number one smash at that time as well all over the world (plus the “So Far Gone” mixtape had made Drizzy was super popular), so you can imagine how the Toronto crowd went batshit crazy when Jay brought Drizzy out to acknowledge him and let him perform a snippet of “Best I Ever Had”. 😉
WORST CONCERT:
Okay so, I have to preface this by saying that the actual CONCERT in this case was probably great (for the majority of the audience) in terms of the performances, etc.
However, for me, it started out super exciting and ended being very problemtic for me to say the least lol.
Back when I was around 13 or 14, I met a friend (an East Indian Trini kid nicknamed named Hertz) who introduced me to the world of Rastafarian Dancehall/Reggae culture. He played a ton of cassette mixtapes by (now-legendary local Rasta selector) Nyabinghi and he schooled me on all the ways of the Rastafarian Twelve Tribes Of Judah,among other things.
Eventually he got me interested in going to locally held Rasta “dances”. Concerts, basically, with some Jamaican acts performing for the very receptive Trindiadian Rastafari community.
We went to quite a few Rasta “dances” over the years and had a lot of fun. Except for this one time, when I legit felt and thought (albeit irrationally) that I was gonna die or something worse. 🤦🏾♂️
One night, my friend Hertz took me to a Rasta “dance” in Port-Of-Spain, held in honour of of the “EarthStrong” (Rasta slang for “birthday”) of His Imperial Majesty (Emperor Haile SeLassie I The First).
Brigadier Jerry (see video below 👇🏾), Josey Wale, Super Cat, Nicodemus, Junior Demus and (Trini Dancheall legend) General Grant, all shared the stage, freestyling lyrics over Dancehall riddims live.
Long story short: The “dance” was held in a venue with VERY poor ventilation, and there were so many Rastas smoking smoking giant ass spliffs in that enclosed space that I got high af from the second hand weed smoke. I got the kind of high when the whole room is spinning and you feel like you’re going to die any second. 🙈
And the performers kept going and going and goinggggg (in these Rasta events they tend to just keep freestyling until either the sun starts rising or people start leaving hours later). Hertz insisted on staying till the end and I wound up crumpled up in a corner praying to just get home to the saftey of my bed lol.
In the end, I made it home safely thanks to Hertz, just in time for the sun to come up. Slept for a ridiculous amount of hours and then woke up and ate everything in the damn kitchen lmao.
I still cringe thinking about the horrible feeling from that night lol. To this day i’m not a big weed smoker lol. 🤷🏾♂️
