Concert Review: Easy Star All Stars @ World Cafe Live

City of Brotherly Dub- Easy Star All Stars Style

World Café Live- 4/2/10

If I said there were no words for tonight’s Easy Star All Stars show at World Café Live in Philadelphia, I’d be a complete liar—What an amazing show!

As Philly ska band Ruder Than You opened the floor, a variety of people trickled into the venue, and let me tell you, this has been one of the most eclectic crowds I’ve come across. First you have the free spirited tie-dye hippies, including Zach Galifianakis’ doppelganger. I also managed to get bubbles blown in my face by a Russian gypsy woman who later showed my sister her magic water ball…or at least I think that’s what it was.

The minute the Easy Star All Stars hit the stage, this diverse crowd solidified into a single unit of energetic foot stomping, sweat dropping frenzy. Comprised of reggae musicians from the NYC area, Easy Star All-Stars popped out of thin air with 2003’s Dub Side of the Moon, a cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. But don’t let the idea of a cover band scare you…

Until you’ve experienced the transformative power of the Easy All Stars’ ability to take the basic structure of crowd unifying pop songs and completely warp them into carefully rendered reggae/ dub songs, you have no idea what a real cover band is about. With fiery improvisation on vocals, keys, electric guitar, one of the sickest basses I’ve ever seen, saxophone and trombone NO ONE in their right mind can complain. Their incredible transitions between songs were not only flawless, but also unexpected.  No joke, they split up their cover of The Beatles “When I’m Sixty Four,” stuck in a cover of Radiohead’s “Let Down” and did it utterly seamlessly.

Playing tracks from Radiodread, Dub Side of the Moon, and Easy All Stars Lonely Heart’s Dub Band— they made sure to cover all of their bases. By the end of the night, the clock read close to 11:30pm which was astounding considering that their three hour set felt more like an hour.

Tiffany Ortiz (Program Director, All Fired Up Radio Show)