Easy Stars In Concert

Last month the Reggae cover band Easy Star All-Stars played a packed Opera House. It was the most engaged crowd I've seen this year and it's no wonder. The touring line-up are first-class musicians who give their all and clearly love what they do. This was their 10th anniversary tour performing all of Dark Side of the Moon and the audience was with them all the way.

A hopping Reggae act, John Brown's Body, was on first. They're named after the 19th century American abolitionist. They were enthusiastic and their danceable songs warmed up the house for the main event. People were openly smoking pot, a leisurely security patrol not dissuading anyone. One fan was wearing a top hat like the Mad Hatter's. When smoking was still allowed in Toronto concert venues people with joints blended in. It felt really different now, being in the hazy blue cloud, indoors.

The All-Stars came onstage with a big driving version of Radiohead's Electioneering. The Pink Floyd songs were as majestic as the originals but, best of all, the band made them their own. Kirsty Rock's vocal riffing on The Great Gig in the Sky was particularly impressive. It was also refreshing to see that the group was ethnically diverse and made up of men and women.

They played songs from other albums, including One Likkle Draw (original), a protest song: Mr. President and Redemption Song for the finale. The tenor sax and trombone players sounded amazing, especially on Thriller and Billy Jean. What grabbed me most was their cover of Radiohead’s Climbing Up the Walls. I swayed along to the ambient sounds and felt the emotions in the words.

Easy Star All-Stars at the Opera House, Toronto, April 2014. Photo credit: A. Lavender

Pink Floyd as Reggae

Today I was at a café with my mom and sister. At one point we heard Pink Floyd's Breathe as a reggae cover. It turns out NYC's Easy Star All-Stars have made a tribute album of Pink Floyd's classic, in its entirety. It's hugely entertaining and very well realized. Their discography also includes their versions of OK Computer, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Thriller.

On Radiodread their instrumentation is inventive. To great effect, they've chosen to use brass, piano and melodica where the original used completely different instruments. A number of guest singers are featured and their vocals are unique. On Paranoid Android Kirsty Rock sings Thom Yorke's melody in his range. On Exit Music (For A Film) Sugar Minott sings in a lower register and the sense of the song is still smooth, dreamlike, disconcerting. Let Down works particularly well as an up-tempo ska song.

Pink Floyd is a favourite source for covers. Canadian band Luther Wright and the Wrongs interpreted The Wall as a bluegrass album. Also a surprising choice, skillfully executed. Comfortably Numb is a real departure from the flavour of the original, while the arrangement is unified and catchy.

Toronto residents are used to the posters for Reg Hartt's screenings of The Wizard of Oz paired with Dark Side of the Moon and Nosferatu with Kid A/OK Computer. Easy Star All-Stars' Dub Side of the Moon also includes instructions on how to sync the record with the 1939 film. Curious, I checked YouTube. In the opening there are some parts which align well (Dorothy balancing on a railing, then falling, the farmhand running to her, the first appearance of the “witch” on a bike). I'd say, though, that there are big sections where audio and visual don't make sense together, at least not while sober. If anything I found the intro goes better with the All-Stars' idyllic rendition of Breathe, even if the jungle beats of On the Run are totally at odds with the visuals for Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

The Easy Star All-Stars play the Opera House April 5th.