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Tuesday, August 9, 1983
The Michigan Daily
Tosh preaches
reggae gospel
By Doug Laurin
T HE COMING OF Peter Tosh turned
Ann Arbor's packed Michigan
Theatre into a three-tiered reggae dan-
ce floor Saturday night.
The crowd stood when Tosh appeared
and he kept them on their feet
throughout the 15-song performance.
His deep, resonating voice combined
with a penetrating bass., a blaring syn-
thesizer, and a bouncy bongo beat sent
the energetic audience swinging,.
swaying, clapping and singing. "You'
could feel the vibration," said one fan.
"Everybody was moving with it."
All eyes followed Tosh as he tiptoed
about the stage gracefully kicking and
karate chopping to the jagged staccato
beat. His long fountain-shaped
dreadlocks and Japanese jumpsuit with
a red, green, and yellow sash ( the
colors of Ethiopia's flag) gave the dan-
ce a Bush Doctor/Tae Kwon Do mix-
ture.
His reggae, though, was pure. Begin-
ning with the natural, enduring beat of
"Pick Myself Up," Tosh and his seven-
piece band continued with the slow,
simple sound of Jamaica. The syn-
thesizer added a rural element creating
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background chirps of birds, crickets,
and treefrogs.
The stage became "a place of wor-
ship," as SLK's lead singer Art
Brownell suggested it would, when the
lights dimmed and the band calmed for
Tosh's fourth number, a rural folk
gospel piece. Tosh preached softly with
an incomprehensible Jamaican accent
- each passage ending with a guttural
roar of "Jah Rastafari!"
He continued his religous message
with "Rastaman is the Savior" -
during which he frequently froze his tall
imposing frame under the spotlight,
eyes pointed to the heavens. He drop-
ped to his knees during a final spiritual
height joining percussionist Constan-
tine Walker in an overpowering bongo
duet. Pounding the drums with fervent
intensity, it seemed that the two were
trying to drill Jah into each person's
bones.
The prophet's six selections from
Mama Africa highlighted the perfor-
mance with a fresh vitality. "Where
You Gonna Run," a jazzy commercial
number led into Tosh's newest fight
song, "Not Gonna Give It Up." A
whining guitar lead followed by a funky
synthesizer jam sprinkled up "Mama
Africa" while working up to his ex-
plosive hit "Johnny B. Goode."
Reggae worshippers witnessed
classic rebellion when Tosh sang "Wan-
ted Dead and Alive" and "Get Up,
Stand Up." The audience joined in
singing "Legalize It" as Tosh lit a
gigantic spliff and displayed lungs
larger than Cheech and Chong com-
bined.
Only Peter Tosh can play reggae
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Peter Tosh performed his classic reggae for an enthusiastic crowd at the
Michigan Theatre Saturday night.
music with such a meaningful and en- Tosh concluded after the show, "and it
joyable style. "Tonight you heard the won't be heard like that again until I
original, the pure reggae," the jovial return."
Episodic film balances
fairy-tales with reality
By Richard Campbell nocent, curious young girl, Shooting
Stars describes a group of Italian
T HERE'S A strange, endearing film villagers fleeing from Nazis and Italian
in town and tomorrow night is the fascists during the close of World War
perfect time to see it. II.
Night of the Shooting Stars is an Our hapless band decides to search
episodic film, yet builds its drama from for their liberators, the American Fifth
an acute observation of the human con- Army, rather than remain in their
dition. Told from the viewpoint of an in- See TOMORROW, Page 11
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