Bedouin Soundclash, The Junction – Live (Nov. 10th, 2005)

I go to concerts quite often now, especially lately, and the excitement is always the same before every concert. But as November 10th came closer, this excitement was combined with a sense of intrigue, because really, I had no idea what to expect from the reggae influenced Bedouin Soundclash; and as Wayne and I waited in line to get in, it was clear it would be a concert unlike any other just from looking at the other attendees.

As people slowly started to file into the venue, the sole opening act, The Junction steped onto the stage. The floor was pretty empty as they started their set, but by the end it had started to fill up – which seemed to fit their set structure as well since the first song was pretty bad. But as they went through their set, the songs got a bit more energetic and started to get some crowd response. And although they put on a pretty decent performance, i doubt they left the stage with that many new fans. They were a bit too rigid and only a few of the songs had thet instant attraction that an opening band needs to have to grab the audience’s attention.

But The Junction wasn’t the reason people were there, they were there for Bedouin Soundclash, and after nearly 40 minutes of waiting, the band finally stepped onto the stage. They kicked it of with Gyasi Went Home and played a nice selection from all their CDs – even some UK only tracks – including Shadow Of A Man, Shelter, Jeb Rand, Nothing To Say (I think), and a really great song I had never heard before called Walls Fall Down; and they put on a surprisingly good show too. Sure, it wasn’t full of energy as the band was moderalty rigid and the crowd wasn’t moving much. But most of the people were there to see the band perform and hear the songs live rather than dance in a pit. So other than a few dancers who really got into the set, the floor was pretty static – but that didn’t take away from the band’s performance in anyway. They sounded perfect and their reggae fusion flew through the air seemlessly. They were even able to get the weird echo effects atthe begging and end of Criminal, busted out a great drum solo and played a few cover tunes.

Of course, one of the main highlighths of the night was their marginally succesful single When the Night Feels My Song – which they dedicated to the late Joe Strummer and had every single person in the crowd singing along. This would’ve put a cap on an already enjoyable evening, but the band was done yet and came back on for an encore after a few minutes of chanting. Throwing everyone a curve ball, instead of sitting back down behind the drum set, Pat Pengelly walked up to the mic to sing alongside Jay Malinowski for one song before gong back to normal for a Clash cover song and Money Worries.

In all honesty, this was a weird concert. There’s no other way to describe it. Everything was different, from the crowd to the songs they played inbetween bands. But I guess that’s what you get at a reggae show and while it wasn’t a fist pumping show to write home about, it was still a lot of fun and any Bedouin Soundclash fan would’ve agreed.