Went to see Lee Perry at the jazz Café on Friday. This was probably one of the best Reggae experiences to date. Given he’s in his 70’s now he still has buckets of presence, on and off stage.
Don’t know who the Upsetters are now, certainly the bass and guitar players were quite old men, the bass player in particular was outstanding, don’t think it was Family Man, but up to that standard. Perry unassumingly slips onto stage during roast fish and corn bread. He toasts more than sings, you feel he can’t remember all the words and it’s the band pushing it along, however he’s clearly in charge up front.
There were a number of outstanding tunes, old and new. At one point during Introducing Myself you could have been persuaded Adrian Sherwood was at the controls, the overdubs were immense! He did old tunes like Bucky Sk@nk, Crazy Bald heads and Zion Blood. Then as unassumingly as he arrived he left stage. A few minutes later he was back for an encore; War in a Babylon which was truly epic!
After he left stage for the second time the band jammed with some serious dub that would have push creation rebel – threat to creation to shame.
All in all he still has it, for more much longer who knows.
See him if you get a chance.
Managed to shake his hand and get his autograph, he’s a very gentle soul.
Hope you got a flavour of the event.