Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you brought up the issue of “(not having) an encore.”

I’ll preface my reply by saying that I think their show was pretty good, although it stuck uncomfortably to the script. Their posturing shtick was cute, but made it feel impersonal and less inspired.

On than note, I think we did indeed have an encore — wasn’t presented like a traditional encore. Remember when the stage lights went down and they asked us to cheer before the last song? It seemed like THAT was their so-called encore, and because it was inorganically built-into the show, it was perceived as a strong ending.

So when the crowd DID cheer for an encore (and I think we did a fair job of it; though I was saddened that no one cared — or knew — enough to get a good “hana hou” chant going), NAS and Marley simply didn’t have the material to return to the stage.

And, listen, I’m not saying I agree with it, but it was clearly a stylistic thing that was incongruous with the expectations of our local crowd. Cest la vie.

Another element of the show’s presentation that was intrinsically befuddling to me — though I can see how this style might work/be expected elsewhere (i.e. in fast-paced cities or in areas with poignant sociopolitical pressure) was the sort of ADHD set list and forced breaks. They never played a song long enough for us to slip into a good groove. We islanders, I’d like to think, are predisposed to understanding — and wanting — deep roots rhythms. (Tangentially, I think the talentless have taken it too far, so as to breed the lesser examples of undynamic Jahwaiian.)

Instead, it felt like incomplete parts jumbled chaotically. It made me wonder if it was the artists or their audiences who are with diminishing attention spans so as to demand such a style of performing.

Maybe it’s both.

It made me wonder, too, if all this is in some part an expression of post-post-oppression in the context of a hyper-connected world? That is, is this a manifestation of an era of dispossession at its spectrum’s end? NAS and Marley are, respectively, hailed as the rap and reggae realm’s elite, after all.

Oh, that reminds me. One more thought:

So my friend Marc and I went to the show, and he expressed his excitement about the tour in that it’s the officiation of hip hop and reggae’s marriage.

I added it’s the long overdue wedding reception for a common law marriage.

Marc took it a step further still, and determined rap and reggae’s official union could not be a gay marriage — er, excuse me, civil union or whatever — because reggae is too religious. And, reggae would have to be the woman in the relationship because it’s oft referred to as “sweet, sweet reggae,” and no man necessarily likes to be called sweet.

So there you go. My thoughts on the NAS and Damian Marley show. Thanks again for sharing yours.