The first, of this years’ two, summer reggae festivals hit the town last week bringing a full lineup of Jamaican originals to downtown Denver. Headlining this years One Love Festival were Luciano, Toots and Israel Vibration. The Stone Love Sound System, straight outta JA, kicked things off followed by sax player Dean Fraiser. The festival style lineup meant short, 50-minute sets from all the performers and an early start time, just before 7pm.

By the time Luciano hit the stage, around 7:45pm, several thousand people were present in the large Fillmore auditorium. Wearing green military fatigues and carrying a cane, one might confuse Luciano with a militant rasta like Peter Tosh. Although Luciano is certainly a soldier in Jah Army, his message is purely uplifting and spiritual. Whether singing over roots rhythms or dancehall beats, Luciano's message of respect and unity never wavered. Songs like "It's me again Jah" and "You're world and Mine" kept a cool reggae rhythm and highlighted Luciano's strong voice.

Next up was Israel Vibration backed by the Roots Radics. It goes without saying that the Roots Radics are probably the best band outta Jamaica. Practically pioneering the dancehall sound, the Roots Radics have been on top for a long time. And when they come to town with a harmony duo as good as Israel Vibration, well, it's almost too much for this reggae fan. I-vibes played a standard set, which means roots hit after roots hit. From their newer songs like "Cool and Calm" to their earliest hits "Same Song" and "Ball of Fire," the duo of childhood friends who met at a polio clinic nearly toppled down Babylon that night.

Unfortunately for most, Toots closed the One Love Festival. Toots is a reggae legend and true original, but lately it seems that he has become very stubborn and bitter. Upon his arrival on stage, Toots immediately determined that there was a problem with the sound. Although it sounded great for every preceding performer, Toots treated the closing performance like a sound-check as he proceeded to test his position from every monitor on stage. Searching for some elusive perfection that he never finds, Toots threw his microphone down mid-set and walked off stage.

Now, I've seen Toots three times and three times he has stopped the show to yell at his engineer. He's done this so often that I'm convinced it's part of his act. Maybe the sound wasn't right or maybe he's trying to get the people into frenzy before he closes the show down, whatever the reason, he kills the mood and the frustration is visible with the sound guys, the band members, and the audience. On the one hand Toots spends half the show telling us how many hit records he has (31) and how many number one hits (23) as if he gets no respect, then the other half of the show complaining about the sound, throwing a fit and walking off stage. When he was singing, there wasn't a soul that wasn't on the dance floor doing the "monkey man" and having an enjoyable time. Toots is at his undeniable best when gets the audience dancing then invites them to participate in the crazy call-and-response games he comes up with. Too bad Toots couldn’t have as much fun as everyone else did.

Givin’ it to ya 16 times.

Jason Dozza

The Reggae Review

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