The Phoenix as a venue is ideal for gigs like this, with a main auditorium which holds 450, an outdoor terrace for the smokers with plenty of seating, and a bar area of course.
The music in the bar area was provided by Highest Grade reggae sound system, where Kev and friends played all kinds of dub and reggae, nice and loud from good old 7 inch vinyl records.
As Misty In Roots were a little late to start, the crowd were fired up with anticipation and raring to go. The auditorium was about full, and even the smokers had come in from the terrace. When they finally got going they played a brilliant set, with some newer songs and some old favourites too. At one point they broke into a dub version of Bob Marley's 'Rainbow Country', and I was totally chuffed when they played one of my favourite songs - 'Ghetto Of The City' - from the live album of 79. It was much at a much quicker tempo than the old version, with a hint of ska and lots of energy, brilliant.
Misty In Roots have always been passionate about fighting racism and fascism, and that passion comes through in their music. They were heavily involved in the Rock Against Racism movement of the late 70's which brought blacks and whites together with music, in otherwise quite racist times in London.
The lead singer has quite a crazy dancing style, shaking and shuddering, stamping, kicking and waving. He must be about 70 years old now. Sometimes it seemed like he was conducting the band, or maybe even telling them off, but that may have just been his dancing. The 7 members of the band played as if they were a single entity, sticking together and keeping it tight. The bass was loud and we were treated to a bass guitar solo which shook the building to its foundations. Unfortunately there was only one brass instrument but a single trombone can go a long way sometimes, and the guy on keyboards had 3 Korg synthesisers to play with, 2 of them were M1's and that's a lot of synth. On the whole a great band, they played really well and the crowd loved it.
Keeping with the tradition of live gigs, the band walked off stage after an hour or so, and the crowd cheered them back for an encore of two songs. The first of these two songs was surprisingly slow, like a love song, which I didn't expect. It was no doubt a great song but not full of the same energy as the rest of the set. Maybe one to be played earlier on rather than near the end, just a minor criticism.
It was an honour and a privilege to see this legendary band play live, and they might even be still as good live as they were on that 1979 album too. This was truly a moment in history.
article by: Keith Sharman
photos by: Federica Pacifico
published: 01/11/2011 12:12
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.