Roots & Soul Festival Sunday ‘Does It For The Gram’

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ome have described it as the best locally produced concert in a long time. To each his (or her) own. Just in case you missed it, be informed that in addition to the multiple local and French media houses in attendance, hundreds of cell phones hovered over the heads of the audience. Presumably the recorders plan to relive the festival’s finest moments, over and over and over.

For the especially curious, the inclusion of Ashanti (no, not our Calypso Monarch!) on Sunday’s Roots & Soul Festival bill must’ve served as a magnet. Her return to these shores, with her 1990s-early 2000s famous sidekick Ja Rule, was for many, irresistible. Before the R&B and rap duo took to the stage, Events Company of Saint Lucia issued a notice from the American performers’ camps that photographing and recording would be permitted only during the duo’s first three songs. A pity; Ja Rule’s high energy performance grew more and more spirited as the show progressed. The rapper also received loads of help from fawning fans gone wild, especially while delivering numbers like J Lo’s 2001 hit “I’m Real”. They just loved it when Ja Rule stepped up on the speakers in the media pit to be closer to his audience—an athletic feat that in itself was quite impressive.

Ashanti was quite the seductress, her bejewelled one-piece featuring a low cut bustier and underpants that evidently triggered the imagination of her fans in this age of gender fluidity. The lap dance feature of her set will be a hot topic for some time, especially among the kids at the presumed family-oriented festival. Certainly Ashanti raised the Pigeon Park temperature several notches.

Another of Sunday’s performers endured an uncanny audience interaction. Romain Virgo, a 28-year-old Jamaican reggae singer, had some women crawling over the railings to get closer to him. But when one lucky lady was picked out to join him onstage, she whipped out her phone and held it overhead, all the while staring at the screen. At one point she stood up from her stage chair, to twerk and twirl, presumably for the excitement of her “followers”.  But she overstayed her welcome. Before long a jeering crowd was letting her know in the worst way that enough was enough.

Sunday’s earlier performers were also crowd pleasers. The New York-based band Morning Sun & The Essentials, with Saint Lucian vocalist Michel Aubertin, featured creole interludes and several nods to the late ace musician-producer Leebo. They were well received by a squealing and screaming audience. Shayne Ross opened the show. It was hard to imagine a more fitting opening act on the final lap of the three-day festival. For most of his set the early arrivals sang along. It was a clear sign that everyone was in for a good show. Organisers have already hinted at goodies for the next Roots Festival—local and foreign!