 "Photo: Buddy Burkhalter")
Toots and the Maytals have been playing soulful reggae for almost 40 years. Even after four decades, lead singer and guitar player Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert played a whole concert on Wednesday night with the energy most bands reserve for an encore. Toots sent the audience into a multitude of hand-waving, foot-stomping frenzies, with almost every song concluding in a pulpit-worthy crescendo.
Louisiana duo Outlaw Nation's opening set of laid-back reggae nicely prefaced the evening's main event. After the rest of his band came on stage, Toots himself entered arm in arm with his two backup dancers. Toots is almost 63 years old, but clad in a black, sequin-studded vest, he carried himself with a youthful, informal energy. He shook hands and fist-bumped with the crowd, danced across the stage and worked call and response into almost every song.
The crowd seemed most in sync with the band during an extended, bass-heavy instrumental session in the middle of the show. The Maytals' sound moved from reggae-soul to straight-up funk, leading to an increase in both butt-shaking and the prevalence of marijuana smoke wafting to the rafters.
The two backup singers/dancers who escorted Toots to the stage are an invaluable part of the Maytals. Two beautiful women moving in rhythm on the side of the stage and providing harmonic echoes of the lead singer added a tangible aura of class and old-fashioned cool to Toots' show.
Toots and his dancers even made that one dance move - probably popular in the U.S. around the time a young Hibbert was first strapping on a guitar in Kingston, Jamaica - in which you lock out your arms, clench your fists and piston them up and down, looking graceful and sexy. Note to aspiring Austin bands, both good and bad: Get some backup dancers - it can only help.
Throughout the evening, Toots played songs from his catalog that even a casual fan would recognize - the classic "Pressure Drop" and his Jamaica-infused tribute to John Denver's "Country Roads" came out early in the evening.
When Toots and his band finally did arrive at their encore, a combination of "54-46 That's My Number," "This Little Light of Mine" and several other songs, it was an example of either inspired improvisation or an old pro working from a familiar and well-loved script. Either way, Toots and the Maytals' reggae revival is an effective vehicle for the message of peace, love and happiness that lyrics such as, "For today, today, today is a happy day" espouse.
Be the first to comment on this article!