BY SANDRA EDWARDS-SMITH
RedCarpetShelley.com was in da building at Timeless’ promotion of Maxi Priest and Kes de Band at nightclub Stage 48 on the west side in New York City on Easter Sunday. The last time this correspondent saw Maxi Priest was three months ago at Barclays Center, there were more than 10,000 attendees. The last time I saw Kes was in Trinidad at the Soca Monarch in 2011 where there had to be more than 20,000. So this was a pleasant change to be in a smaller venue.
Stage 48 is a nightclub which offers its patrons an up-close and intimate setting. The capacity for that club is 1100, I would say there were more than 800 patrons. I am used to Caribbean stage shows and concerts starting late but this promotion was advertised as a day fete with a 7 pm start so a 9:45pm start was late for a Sunday evening, that being said the first band on the stand, Maxi Priest gave an energetic performance. Singing crowd favorites “Wild World” and “I Just Wanna Get Close To You” among others. I have one thing in common with Maxi and that is we both hail from South London and I absolutely love Lovers Rock and he delivered by singing a couple of lovers rock songs. He brought Red Rat on stage who further hyped up the crowd with his gravelly voice DJ style. Really great set!!!
Watching Maxi always reminds me of something that happened to me back in London. In the summer of 1986 I went to England to study and I discovered that Maxi Priest was going to be on stage at a free concert in Clapham Common (think Prospect Park) so I decided to go early to the concert, with my suitcase and then leave and head off to prestigious Cambridge University. When I got to the park early it was empty, but when I had to leave at about 5pm to get the train to Uni, the park was full and as I tried to leave the park with my suitcase people were cursing me and asking what idiot brings a suitcase to a concert, as I mashed people’s corns with my suitcase, I said to myself I’ll take the cussing I’m off to Cambridge.
Groovy Soca Monarch 2011 winners, Kes the Band set the stage on fire with their power and groovy soca hits and covers of the current soca hits. The band’s dancers were very energetic and a member of the audience gave Kes (lead singer Kees Diefenthaller) a run for his money when she decided to ‘teef a wine’, well he did invite her on stage, so he got what he asked for! This band is a versatile band, they sang reggae and soca and I have heard them sing rock. Midway thru their set they sang their Groovy Soca Monarch hit ‘Wotless’ and I think the crowd forgot it was Easter and got down to the ground. For those like myself, who did not get to the island of Trinidad for carnival this year, Kes brought Carnival to the West side of the island of Manhattan.
All in all, the show was like a fine wine and good cuisine — a great pairing!
