Toots and the Maytals – Fox Theatre – Boulder, CO – 5/9/2010
It’s amazing that a reggae legend like Toots Hibbert could come to a weed-smoking college town, play a venue the size of an amateur grow operation, and not sell the place out weeks in advance. However, it’s not really surprising that at least 90% of the club was filled and clouded with smoke 20 minutes after the scheduled show time (but still a half hour before the show actually started). Apparently that’s how these things go in Boulder.
[Photo by Lee Abel]
Though he was raised an evangelical Christian, many of Toots’ lyrics focus on Rastafarian themes – a religion founded (in small part) on the idea that evil-society is white-dominated. Meanwhile, with the exception of a very select few, the only black people who came to celebrate this beautiful musical atmosphere were, ironically enough, on stage. But to say that this concert had anything to do with evil-society or anti-white beliefs would be an abomination. Times have changed, and the Rasta “way of life” – finding spirituality within yourself, and being one with the world – has generally been more important than any religious doctrine anyway.
As the band vamped, and Toots shook the hands of nearly every person in the front row, it was comforting to see that times have changed – all people can enjoy this music, and that is largely thanks to the work of the legend that took the stage this night. It takes an audience to make a show, and bobbing your head or singing along to a high melody can be far more unifying than identifying yourself by an ideology, and this could not have been made clearer than it was this past Sunday at the Fox Theatre in Boulder.
READ ON for more of Jon’s thoughts on Toots in Boulder…
