| Considering that I had spent over two decades thinking I would probably never get to see Lee Perry live, it came as quite a shock that I saw he was coming to town AGAIN, after having only played here last November (see entry below). Another chance to see the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry at one of my favorite venues?! Hell yes! No way was I going to miss this. I had it marked on the calender two months out. Only question, as usual, was who to go with. I had mentioned the upcoming show to a new friend of mine from Lumpy's, Lamont. He seemed sincerely interested in going so we planned to go together. I also called Mike Mendenhall (who went with me to the show in November), but he couldn't make it. On the afternoon of the show I had a bright idea to go to the Bees game, then head directly to the show from there. I called Lamont and asked him if he was interested in going to the Bees game beforehand and he was. I picked him up at his house (near our old house on Melbourne St.) and we got to the ballpark just as the game was starting. We sat in a few different seats throughout the game and had a great time talking. This was the first time Lamont and I had hung out outside of the pub and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The weather was quite nice too. "Nice" meaning cloudy and somewhat cooler than it's been most of the summer (100 degrees plus!). It even rained for the first time in several weeks. People loved it and instead of scrambling for cover, we were all hoping to get a little wet! We left just as the game ended and headed straight for The Depot. Parking was a breeze and I took a spot in the open lot just across the street from the front doors. By this time it was still only about 10:15. As we were handing over our tickets I saw from the downstairs video monitor that Lee's opening/backing band, Dub Is A Weapon, was just coming on stage. I assumed that they would play several songs before we would be seeing Lee Perry. However, just after we had ordered our first beer from the bar Lee Perry made his entrance! Our timing couldn't have been better. We found a spot right up front and I quickly snapped a few pictures. The crowd was great; abundant but not crowded, energetic but generally laid back and friendly. Lee himself was in good form as well. Right away I felt he was exuding an very different energy than he had at the last show. He was dressed in a somewhat more "straight-forward" fashion (if there is such a thing for Mr. Perry!) and without some of the more interesting accouterments, such as incense burning from his hat and his "majik," which adorned him last time. His vocal performance was what one might expect, but was less dynamic than the show last year. However, he was also in a much more talkative mood, launching into friendly and funny mini "sermons" to the crowd about things like not smoking cigarettes to how we should all worship the female genitalia (even Lee cracked up during this one!). He played a set which resembled the show last year, playing "Secret Laboratory," "Voodoo," "Purity Rock," "Kiss The Champion," "Heathen," "Inspector Gadget," "Pussy Man," "SDI," and "Sun Is Shining," along with others. However, although the set-list looks similar, it actually sounded quite different from last year's show. It seemed less tight, with a somewhat edgier, more aggressive sound. The saxophone sounded particularly nice on this night and carried several songs (the sax player is the girl I met at last year's show). In fact, Lamont turned to be during one of the big sax parts and said "This really sounds beautiful!" I was of course thinking the same thing. After only about 5 or 6 tunes Lee Perry and the band left the stage, leaving the audience to wonder if that was the entire show. They did return moments later after Lee had made a "costume" change. He was now dressed about as normally as I suppose he ever does, with blue jeans and a denim shirt over a t-shirt. Lamont and I went back to the bar and watched a song or two from there. Then Lamont suggested we go back up front and stand close to the attractive sax player. Only about 5 minutes after taking our new positions we both noticed an especially beautiful young blond gal dancing just in front of us, and within another minute or so this same girl was backing right up into Lamont as she danced. Now, with Lamont being a true "ladies man" (tall, black, and handsome) I wasn't surprised that he was getting play from a beautiful girl. All I was thinking was "It's on now!" and I'm sure Lamont was thinking the same thing. As it turned out she ended up somewhere else in the crowd, and when Lamont finally went to make his move on her at the end of the show he had just missed out by mere moments to a guy we had been talking to earlier. But no tears for Lamont! The guy has more women than you can shake a stick at and he STILL wants to hang out with a married guy like me. Thanks Lamont. And "thank you" again to Lee Perry for coming again to Salt Lake. We'll look for you to roll through again soon! |
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