The wailers at the clyde

It's been awhile since I've written about a show we attended. Wednesday evening we took in The Wailers at the new-ish Clyde Theater on the South side of Fort Wayne (just down the street from our house).

THE BAND
In case you may not be familiar, The Wailers were legend Bob Marley's band. I believe they originally started out with the same name, and Bob was the singer/guitarist, but eventually it became 'Bob Marley and the Wailers.' If I'm not mistaken, a couple of the original members may still be with the group, and possibly three of them played together with Bob when he was still alive.

Front man for the group is now Joshua David Barrett, with Aston Barrett Jr. on drums and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on bass. Donald Kinsey played lead guitar, Owen "Dreadie" Reid on rhythm, and I believe Javaughn Bond on keyboards. There were also two lovely ladies singing backup.

In a rather brief sum-up, the band was good, and it was a good time. They played a number of hits, but I was actually hoping for more. I suppose it would be impossible to play them all though, so I'm not complaining.

THE CLYDE
This converted theater is a gem for concert-goers in the city. I don't specifics on dollars, but Sweetwater poured a ton into this, and it appears to be very well done. I think I heard it can hold 2,000 standing, and 600 or 800 seated. It's a pretty cool place.

This was actually our second time here, and the first time daughter Carrie told us that someone she knows helped with some of the sound installation. There are some lights squares cut into the floor, and that is also where the sub-woofers are located. So we made a bee-line for a square-to-share as this was a show that would be heavy on the bass. We were not disappointed. You could not only FEEL it, but I swear it blew my shirt up a couple times.

The only negative comment I have about the venue is the lighting. Every now and then the moving stage lights get in a rhythm where they almost completely blind the audience. For a while I was hesitant to even look up for fear of the next laser ray into my retinas. Other than that, though, it's pretty swell.

I wish I hadn't had to be up at 4 am the next day, but I don't regret going. I'd guess the Wailers started a little after 9, and we left at 10:45 during probably the 3rd encore song.

The opener was a local band called Phil Shurger's Sun Gate. At least I think they were local, as I recognized the bass player. He's a young guy I've seen play with a ton of bands in town (most likely from Sweetwater's School of Rock). Sun Gate was... "interesting." I think they took a half hour to play three songs, but I couldn't really tell for sure because they all sounded the same.

All in all, it was a grand evening. The $20 tickets were my Father's Day gift from Jane, and I'm glad we got to go.