Machel Montano showed why he is The Boss. When he stepped on stage at 1:55 a.m. and left at 3:25 a.m., no one could say it wasn’t money well spent.
From the local acts of Lil Rick, Mikey, Hypasounds, Marzville, Nikita and others, the energy didn’t diminish.
The soca superstar is on his Soca Kingdom tour and Barbados, he said, was one of the stops. Aptly titled Rise, it was held at Kensington Oval last night and Machel scored run after run.
While the set was familiar, no one seemed to complain. How could you when you have legendary Super Blue from his homeland of Trinidad live on stage?
Not every song was included, but he made sure to perform Showtime, Doh Play Dat, Fast Wine, Drinking Rum Fog, Bacchanalist, Fog Up the Place and more. Not to be left out was Soca Kingdom which he did again in the last set with Super Blue to end the show.
Machel Montano (right) and the legendary Super Blue.
His eight dancers – four guys and four girls, including Bajan lass Nandi who started dancing with the Monk Monte dancers from Carnival this year – showed their agility, with Machel warning patrons “not to try this at home”.
He changed the tempo at 2:20 a.m., with Take it Slow and then the lights went off. The stage was in darkness save for the big screen at the back that helped him to keep his footing. Machel never missed a step, still singing as he went back to Too Young to Soca. The patrons helped out by turning on their cell phone lights to illuminate the place and after 30 minutes the lights came back on.
That was the cue for Holla Bak (left), who Machel introduced as “the future”, to have one of the most enjoyable experiences as he joined the King himself to sing their 2018 collaboration Enjoy. The crowd loved his performance and they also soaked up his Crop over 2018 hit Too Sweet.
The set ended at with Soca Kingdom and the patrons left satiated. (NS)
