the most fun i've ever had playing through a PA!

This was a hastily arranged gig at Hot Mama's a friendly cafe/bar in Motueka. Alan had recorded his busking CD a few days earlier, so this was a sort of launch party for that (although there were no copies for sale - however, the entire CD was being FTP'd up to the archive.org server in San Francisco while were actually playing.


Ras Levi + Helen, Saan, Matthew, Alan, Alex, Ras Judah
Amazingly, the same group of seven musicians somehow managed to reassemble itself (we really didn't expect that), and we played a storming three hour set with no breaks, no setlist...A group of enthusiastic dancers showed up from Riverside and elsewhere, and the energy level was just incredible throughout.


spontaneous circle dancing - Karma and friends (Helen, me, Judah and Paul's knees visible beyond)
We ran through most of the songs on Alan's CD, did some Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, a couple of Ras Judah's African songs, some nyabinghi jamming, freeform saz, etc. It just kept flowing, no one ever seemed to stop and wonder what would happen next. Hugely enjoyable. And my saz stayed in tune throughout, miraculously.


the gig poster, hastily constructed by I'n'I
Having heard about the terrible acoustics at the venue, as well as having had countless bad experiences with PA's, I almost didn't both going along to this one! I very nearly judged that completely wrong, then. Many thanks to Paul for letting us use his PA, and to Richard and Cindy for helping us move it.

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