This was the third time I have seen The Wailers perform, and guess what; Bob Marley’s music never gets old. This time was a little different from the others because the band consisted mostly of relatively young performers, several of which (including the lead singer and Marley’s replacement) probably were never old enough to see the great Bob Marley perform any of these songs.
The exception to this of course was the incomparable bass player Aston “Family Man” Barrett, probably the greatest and most accomplished bass player in Reggae music’s long history. Family Man is the only remaining original member of The Wailers still playing and touring with the band. That makes me wonder, though, what will happen when he retires? I imagine the name The Wailers is far too recognizable and profitable to stop using.
The band busted out all the classics to a delighted (and in many cases blazed-out) crowd at BB Kings in Times Square. I thought the climax of the night was when they played ‘Jammin.’ They carried out the last stanza of the song for about two minutes and kept repeating the breakdown until the crowd became totally engulfed by the beauty of the song. The mood was exactly the way Marley would have wanted; everyone got together and felt alright in his name.
Set list:
1. Concrete Jungle
2. Rock the Boat
3. Soul Rebel
4, Rebel Music
5. Get Up, Stand Up
6. Is This Love
7. So Much Things
8. 3 Little Birds
9 Jammin
10. One Love
11. Redemption Song (Encore)
12. Exodus (Encore)