Roots, rock and reggae converge at the Greek

By Laura Baker
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

Just past Griffith Park in the heart of Los Angeles lies the Greek Theatre, the venue for this year's Roots, Rock and Reggae Festival. For those of you who have never been to the Greek Theatre, the venue features one of the most unbelievably beautiful views in Los Angeles. The outdoor theater sets the environment with trees and a surrounding canyon. On Aug. 27, I was there to enjoy the show underneath the stars.

The festival, which ended in late August, honors and celebrates the life of the well-known and respected singer Bob Marley. Slightly Stoopid, Common, Looner, and Toots and the Maytals were among the bands paying tribute to Marley.

The concert's primary focus was Marley's five sons: Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Ramien Jr. Gong and Ky-Mani. Since his death in 1981, Marley's music still lives on and with the performances of his five talented sons, it is obvious that reggae will remain as respected as in previous years.

Each of the brothers performed individual solo material as well as many of their father's known and loved classics. Each had his own smooth style, and judging by their performances, it is obvious that they are related to a Reggae legend. My favorite was Ziggy; his performance expressed his passion and dedication to the music his father pioneered.

The opening band was Slightly Stoopid, and my friends and I arrived in perfect time to catch them. My interest in the band is fairly new, having heard of them just one year ago. Slightly Stoopid has been around since 1995, after Brad Nowell of Sublime signed them onto Skunk Records. Slightly Stoopid is a combination of rock and reggae.

The performance altogether, was less than I had expected of this band. That could be due to the fact that the show was just getting started and mobs of fans in an array of Marley t-shirts were still swarming to find their seats. Also, the stage wasn't completely set up and sound checks were still taking place during the performance. Although there were many distractions, my head couldn't turn away from the group of guys rocking the stage with just their guitars and vocal chords.

As for Common, I was overwhelmed by the performance. Fortunately, Common is one of the last artists who still practices the fine art of emcee imagination, and performs with incomparable grace and slick style. I was definitely grooving to that beat.

Next in line were Toots and the Maytals. This group has been coined "one of the true architects of Reggae," according to their Web site. True, Toots himself has an amazingly powerful voice that is dripping with nothing but soul, but some of the songs were just a little too gospel for my liking. If I had to rate Toots and his group on a scale from one to 10, I would give them a 10 on presentation, but an eight on actual performance.

All in all, the concert brought together an enormous amount of fans, outrageously talented artists, and an extremely kickback atmosphere. I guarantee not one person walked away with less than a smile.