Tampa Calling

All photos by Phil Bardi.

Despite temperatures that dipped below 30 Wednesday night, a few hundred bundled-up locals managed to make it out to Skipper’s Smokehouse to see British reggae toaster/singer Pato Banton (pictured) perform with LA hip-hop-meets-reggae rock outfit Mystic Roots, a tight little sextet with a two-piece horn section (sax and trumpet) and youthful, energetic players who laid down the grooves with laid-back ease.

Banton was an effervescent showman who sang, toasted, rapped, talked and encouraged the crowd to join him throughout. He was petite and trim and quite the dapper gentleman with his British accent and Euro-urban flair, matching white jacket, shirt, hat and sneaks (apparently a sort of uniform), his positive energy shining as brightly as his clothes. (More pics after the jump.)

You’d never know he was pushing 50 with the way he shimmied and hopped around the stage, nor would you have been able to tell he’d just undergone a two-hour tooth extraction the day before had he not stopped, apologized for sounding “weird” (he didn’t), and pointed out his swollen cheek.

It’s rare you see the star of the show take the spotlight off himself, but Banton is apparently confident enough in his own abilities that he’s made a habit of keeping tabs on his most enthusiastic fans, then inviting the worthiest of the worthies onto the stage to sing with him. I’d never seen something quite like this before but it was obvious that the people who loved him were hip to his schtick and I had a feeling there was probably more to the screening process than met the eye.

The couple who were summoned to the stage during “Go Pato” were a perfectly charming duo. The guy was fair and sandy-haired and clad in a white jacket and Bob Marley tee – imitating Pato’s style on purpose or by coincidence? – and he was obviously more out of his comfort zone than his enchanting lady friend, who was all long straight locks and dazzling smiles and shrugging off her jacket as soon as Pato nodded her way. She shook her money maker in hip-hugging jeans, he swayed awkwardly from side to side, and both performed with excited fan passion while seeming to know all the musical cues, Pato alternately leading them, joining them or standing back and watching with tickled glee. Later in the evening, he invited a 30-something Peter Boyle look-alike to the stage for his crowd-pleasing “Don’t Sniff Coke.”

“I sang this song with you 10 years ago” Boyle-man yelled as the band launched into the song and then he proceeded to toast/rap pretty much every single rapidly-delivered verse of a rather lyrically-dense song, Banton laughing, piping in at points, and seeming to love the hell out of every minute. The rest of the crowd chimed in for the “I do not sniff the coke I only smoke (The sensimilla!)” parts with much gusto.

His final number of the night was a very simple ballad, “Life is a Miracle,” and it was preceded by a story about the inspiration of the song – witnessing the birth of his granddaughter. Even though I cringed a little when he clichéd it up at the end of the song with “The Lord’s Prayer,” overall, he surprised me. I didn’t want to go out at all in this biting cold, but he was a delight and made me supremely happy I did, his reggaefied messages of love, peace, anti-materialism, activism, and positive change ringing pleasantly in my head the rest of the night.

Posted in News | Leave a comment