Upon arrival local support act Duncan Disorderly and the Scallywags had already taken to the stage, and despite a great band name I couldn’t help thinking they just wanted to be Gogol Bordello.
Maybe this was due to the fact I had recently listened to the upcoming release by everyone’s favourite gypsy punks, as to be fair Duncan Disorderly himself did get the crowd going and it was all good fun and with their fiddle player being a well accomplished musician I didn’t have anything against them, it just felt like there wasn’t any individuality to the band.
Then as their opening slot came to a close, Disorderly took to the microphone for some unexpected beat boxing, and it was pretty damn good! The rest of the band soon joined in playing their eastern European jig as the vocal beats continued, and you couldn’t help but think if only this was what they were actually about.
So with some top tunes coming through the Concorde’s sound system it was soon time for Misty in Roots, and with these guys being one of the late seventies/early eighties biggest British Reggae bands the expectations were pretty high. However the gig started rather subdued as the band entered the stage with their drummer nowhere to be seen, apparently due to ensuring everything was ok for our enjoyment, only I think it was more to do with his enjoyment backstage going on the performance that followed.
When you look at the classic reggae rhythm section of Sly and Robbie, it’s the tightness between the bass and drums that goes a long way to making it sound so big, but with Misty in Roots there didn’t seem to be the energy there to make it as special as it should have been which in turn resulted in a bit of a disappointing show and one where it seemed they were just going through the motions.
Maybe expectations were too high, or maybe it was the band, but considering they had their own sound crew at the side of the stage the bass was far too over powering. Now this is far from something that would normally be a complaint at a reggae night, but when it starts to drown out the horn section you know the levels aren’t quite right.
It’s a shame as the Concorde 2 is such a fantastic venue, and even with the disappointment of the performance itself the atmosphere was great in what looked like a near sold out crowd and a good night was still had by all, so as the after party continued to entertain the crowd it was time to head on home and wave good night to the Brighton sea front.
