Buju Banton @ The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY
Live Reviews | Mar 20th, 2003
Opening Bands: DJ Shaggz
Date: March 20th 2003
Venue: The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY
I never saw Buju before so I wanted to make an attempt at seeing him. Usually when he plays, tickets are super expensive but they weren’t as much (they were still pretty crazy) but 30 dollars is better than 80. I figured the show wouldn’t start til 10, so I showed up with my brothers at around 9pm and reggae shows lived up to their reputation of going on freakin late.
Buju Banton didn’t go on til 11pm. Though DJ Shaggz was playing dancehall and getting the crowd really into it. Like Def Comedy Jam into and screaming, and waving their hands around and making a shitload of noise. I think they wanted to scare all the lame white people in the building, like myself. Buju finally came on with his backup band Shiloh Band. I forget what song he started off but he just went through a bunch of songs like “Destiny” “Not An Easy Road” “Champion” and “Hills And Valleys.” What I didn’t like about the show is that He would sing a slower song, and then go into another song (but on Cd those songs are faster) but he kept doing it slow which I didn’t like. Plus some of the songs were 2 seconds long like “Give I Strength” and “Murderer.”
Buju Banton was saying all these stuff between the songs but I couldn’t figure out what he saying because 1) he’s Jamaican 2) it was loud so yeah, he could be saying kill whitey for all I know and I wouldn’t know. No wondering why everyone was going apeshit after he was speaking. hehe. Throughout the night, my old man feet were killing me. It was probably the way I was standing. I had to start dancing and moving around to get my feet to hurt less. Plus I get A.D.D when I’m at shows so I had to move around a little and see what’s up throughout the club. I think I got high from second hand ganja smoke. I can’t stand smelling that crap. But what do I expect from going to a reggae show. I’d rather smell a pile of shit then smell marijuana.
But anyway, back to the show. The song that got me dancing the most was from his new album “Friends For Life” “Feeling Groovy.” He talked about how ska and rocksteady all came from Jamaica and he wanted to do an older style song so he broke out into this ska-ish song and got me skankin’. I do the hands in the pockets, skank in place dancing. I can bust a move if I really wanted to. Overall, the concert was fun but I wish he did some songs better or how they were on the original CD.
