I arrived at @Newtown to find a very empty room upstairs, with only a few bored looking punters listening to the reggae tunes being played by a DJ. After taking advantage of the cheaper drinks available downstairs, I returned to find the ForeignDub DJs playing a nicely varied set of reggae and drum and bass type stuff. I’m usually not a huge fan of drum and bass, but the stuff that these guys were playing was good, and fit nicely with the vibe.
Next up was the Red Eyes, who are absolutely fantastic. I’ve been going to reggae and ska shows for about 8 years now, and I think it’s safe to say that the Red Eyes are the best proponents of this genre that Australia has to offer. Sporting a slightly different line up, with their regular trombone and trumpet player attending a wedding, they still put on one hell of a show. Their vocalist has an excellent stage presence, and the ever busy King Charlie working the sound desk puts in the reverb effects at all the right times. Playing live reggae is by no means an easy feat, but done well it can be great. The Red Eyes, coming off the end of a reasonably long tour, do it very well.
Once again heading downstairs for cheap beer, I missed the majority of the DJ who played in between the Red Eyes and Rastawookie. I was quite surprised by Rastawookie. The last time I saw them was about 2 years ago, and at that time the reggae influence was obvious. This time however, they seemed to be playing pretty much straight up South American kind of music. It appears that the line up has also changed quite drastically since I last saw them – I counted 4 (out of about 10) original members? Particularly conspicuous by his absence was the straw hat wearing trumpet player, whose presence used to give them a bit of character. It’s interesting that they still call themselves Rastawookie, given that they aren’t particularly rasta and that the line up is so different.
Their music wasn’t bad, and a lot of people were definitely getting into it, but it wasn’t what I was expecting, and I, for one, preferred their old stuff. It may also have been a bit of a mistake to play so late, especially in that they were following the Red Eyes. The crowd definitely thinned a bit towards the end and for me the highlight of the night was definitely the support act.
