Reggae fiesta at Rasta La Vista

The Nice Guys, an eight-membered ska band from Ghent opens the festival. With an intimate solo of the alto saxophonist, the band starts a musical adventure of ska and rocksteady. The audience wasn't very numerous at first, but the band didn't mind at all, not even when there were some problems with the sound.  After Funky blowjob, they played Need your lovin', Nr. 1 Hit, Madmans world and others. The Nice Guys – which is sponsored by Trojan Records – is composed of a guitarist, keyboard player, double bassist, one alto and two tenor saxophonists, a trombonist who also does the lead vocals and a drummer. They played an energetic set in which harmonies and solos were proportionally present. Beside their own songs, they also pay homage to The Slackers with The Night and to Laurel Aitkin, with the well-known hit Sally Brown.

New in line were Coillieman and Rohan Lee , backed by The Pirates Crew, in the second, smaller room. To warm up the crowd, General Johnny started with a freestyle to the 'ghetto rhythm' and was quickly accompanied by Plastik B, who is also the guitarist of The Nice Guys, besides being a selector. After this, Collieman took over the microphone and started singing Awareness. The audience instantly fell for his mellifluous voice. Between his songs Collieman, sometimes called the Belgian Gentleman, gave a couple of 'big ups' to the organization of the festival and to Mighty Sunscape, the Ketami brothers' band. He directed the Drama sounds  towards all the 'sounds boys' who exchange positivity for negativity and slackness, and got a big 'forward' from the crowd as a reward. After some 'new roots' songs, the singer from Ghent  returns to the 'roots rock' reggae, with Open for discussion. Neither What we need is love – a Clive Chin production, together with The Wailers and Unlisted Fanatics- nor Colliemans new song Never give up were missing during the show.    This year he has already made a couple of songs which have hit list potential, so the question arises when his new album will come out? 

Beside Collieman, the Jamaican singer Rohan Lee was also present at the festival. Lee started with one of his reggae hits, Are you ready?  causing the audience to immediately be swept along by his music. But it became apparent early on that the singer was forcing his voice, which made him sound a bit hoarse. From his first album For the poor  he played Wolf  and Boogie yagga system. I left his showcase before the end, because in the other room Wawashda, the last band of the evening,  had already started.

Wawashda, founded in 2008 by Spiritually Wally and Sput, presented a mix of reggae and hip-hop. What's special about this band is that their lyrics are composed of both English and Dutch lines, which produced a pleasant 'flow'.  The band was only just getting warmed up but the crowd was already going wild. Songs like  Home  and Dinner for 2  caused a small explosion in the room. Clearly this band doesn't lack the creativity to keep a concert innovative. At some point Spud started doing freestyles about some objects coming from the crowd, for example a sweater, a bra and an album by Alborosie. Both the band and the audience, especially the front rows, were very much enjoying themselves, until the last freestyle, featuring earplugs, castles, clowns and mountains, closed their show.

Finally the people danced into the night with The Pirates crew in the larger room. The sound system from Ghent played records varying from ska over rocksteady and ragga to dancehall.  This up-tempo selection was more appreciated by the audience than the easier dub and steppers of Freedom Sound in the small room.

At 4 a.m. the doors of Rasta la Vista had to be closed. It was a pleasant evening and hopefully there'll  be another edition!