Easy Star All-Stars @ TheCorner, Melbourne (30/12/11)

Thu 5th Jan, 2012 in Gig Reviews

As you enter The Corner Hotel from the humid Melbourne night outside, a blast of reggae and dub cools you down like a bucket of water; instant chill-out. The music is emanating from the corner stage, where a DJ spins the classics of Jamaica as a dreaded MC gives the occasional holler of “one love” over the top. As you step into the room you’re buffeted by dancers that spill out to the edge of the room; as your cohort goes to get the first round you are immediately approached by a stranger seeking illicit substances. “Nah mate, sorry” you reply, wondering if you look like a dealer, and what a typical dealer even looks like.

The music segue-ways seamlessly as the headliner takes to the front stage, boldly beginning with material from their originals EP. More in line with traditional reggae than their more well-known diversions into genre cross-overs, it nonetheless sets the mood perfectly, displaying the band’s obvious talent; the eight piece Easy Star All-Stars have a large portion of the crowd grooving from the outset. With the second song a heavy-set MC takes centre stage, and goes on to jump around with such vigour that his hat falls off, shaking loose a shock of dreadlocks. By this point, the room is a wash of red tinged light, the air full of the pungent mix of weed smoke and body odour.

It doesn’t matter though, as the promised tour of Dub Side of the Moon kicks off with the slowed-down heartbeat of Speak to Me/Breathe. The short, bald man in front of you begins dancing provocatively and a little too close for your liking; you shift further into the throng of gently swaying bodies and away from his gyrations. The complete Dark Side running order is progressed through without much of a gap in between, imitating the seamless nature of the original Pink Floyd recording. The audience peaks in excitement, as expected, with Time and Money, while the most disappointing rendition is Great Gig in the Sky, where the female singer’s voice seems to crack and break, failing to reach the lofty heights of the original recording. In fact, after the initial buzz, and in spite of the fact that the record of Dub Side of the Moon was such a perfect balance of difference and similarity to the original, you find yourself wishing that the would break out and tend towards a little more reggae and a little less rock.

There are, however, some winning moments. Brain Damage is given new, rastafied meaning with the call of “The lunatic is on the grass”. When the album completes with Eclipse, the All-Stars don’t hesitate before launching into Let Down and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from their other concept album reinterpretations, neither of which quite represent the perfect meeting of worlds that Dub Side did. In particular, the lyrical content of Karma Police and the rest of Ok Computer seems too dour for the upbeat music, though With A Little Help From My Friends would receive a good response regardless of style. At the end of the night you’re left happy, if not amazed. The Easy Star All-Stars present a novel spin on the cover band, but it’s hard to see them progressing beyond that unless they introduce some of their inspired genre play into their originals.