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fiyaman show review

11:25 wrecka and i arrived @ the congress theater and drove in a few circles looking for parking

11:40 finally found parking 5 blocks north of the venue

11:45 entered the congress. huge venue with many theater style seats, stage, and empty area in front of the stage.
many people were standing in the aisles and around the edges of the seats dancing to the tunes being spun by
ruff neck sounds out of nyc. we found a spot in the fourth row of seats and joined the dancers. it was nice and cool and
uncrowded in the venue, with room for everyone to sit and relax and enjoy themselves. there's a beautiful round domed ornate
ceiling.

12:50 didn't realize an hour went by as we danced to the selector's tunes (through several forwards for new tunes
and foundation classics like "night nurse").the venue starts to fill up.

1:00 the selector calls for the promoter and assures us that the show will start soon as the artists are here...

1:15 the selector calls for the promoter

1:20 the selector calls for the promoter again and tells the crowd he's not sure what's going on and that the
promoter needs to link him right away.

1:30 mobay one, the host comes onstage and begins the show. the crowd quickly runs to the open floor area in front of the stage
for a good view. mobay introduces a local rapper called quarter key and the biggie smalls-esque, red suit wearing rapper
steps onto stage accompanied by boos from the crowd. the only two girls that were dancing in the front of the stage during the
early juggling turned out to be his back up dancers.

1:31 quarter key is obviously frustrated because he can't hear his DAT to rap over and because the crowd is getting rough and
yelling things like "more fiya" and waving him off the stage apollo style. ok, i admit, i was doing it too.

1:33 despite his pleas for cooperation from the crowd "i'm from CHICAGO! i'm one of you, just trying to do my friend a favor, just trying to entertain you"
he almost begged as the first bottle flew onstage and narrowly missed his head but made a nice arched waterfall in the stage lighting. luckily
for him, the venue was smart and only served drinks in plastic cups, so it was just a plastic water bottle.

1:34 quarter key makes a quick stage left exit and mobay comes back onstage and introduces the next artist.
it is obvious they're stalling for time, because he introduces a member of the regular chicago dancehall concert goers as
"gi joe".

1:35 gi joe walks onstage, and being a member of the audience with a little less melanin than most, immediately went into
an urgent patois request for a riddim. his request wasn't met, so he tried to dj with everything he had accapella and probably
would've sounded pretty good, but the crowd wanted nothing less than the fiyaman and even waited less time before the bottles
came flying. this time at least two missiles were seen arching across the stage. and the crowd was beginning to yell "SLEW DEM".

1:37 gi joe quickly exits stage left and mobay's red suit is seen standing behing the protective barrier
of the speaker boxes onstage as he pleads with the selector to play more tunes until the artists arrive.

1:38 the crowd is confused now because they thought the show was gonna start and now the selector was coming back on.

1:39 the selector announces that he is the only one giving a show, so he will play on for the people and felt sorry enough for us
that he promised to pack up and move to chicago asap. he put on the "man and man" baby cham tune that would have mashed up the dance
earlier, but only a few lighters went into the air this time as people were starting to get fed up.

1:40 it seemed that ruff neck was running out of tunes (?) because he started getting creative with the hiphop/dancehall remixes
of tunes he had played earlier, running off that barrington levy/shine bad boy riddim.

1:43 i went out to the bathroom and overheard some girls talking about complaining to the local radio stations and
saying that the artists weren't coming at all. the rumours were spreading.

1:44 wrecka and i decide to hang out in the back row of seats just in case a quick exit was necessary as we watched
the show unfold. it looked like many people were starting to leave as the selector begged them to stay and announced that
the artists were "on their way".

2:15 the musicians rush onstage and go through sound check. the selector stops playing the tunes as mobay requests for him to keep
playing during the sound check. the selector is heard next saying he's not playing any more bumboclaat tunes.

2:17 mobay asks the crowd if they want to hear lexxus or "the fire man" as people slowly start to make their way back to the
front of the stage in a much less dense crowd than before.

2:18 lukie d and sugar roy take the stage, but the sound system is all messed up and we could hardly hear them at all. later we realise the
the sound engineer had audio mike "technical difficulties" so most of Lukeie Ds melodies go unheard.
another missile comes flying across the stage narrowly missing sugar roy's shoulder, but both act professional and Lukie D keeps

singing"maria maria" with all his heart even though it is hard for us to hear him (personal big up to this).

2:19 the sound suddenly snaps back on in the middle of lukie d and sugar roy's set.

2:30 lexxus runs onstage and seems to rush through a medly of every song he's ever made in 10 minutes.
i think i heard him say "cook" a couple times, but by the time i was done trying to get a decent picture of him onstage
he was just about done and running off.

2:45 the fiyaman capleton is finally introduced and the crowd upfront gets almost as thick as the original false start crowd.

3:19 "good in her clothes", "who dem", "jah jah city" and going back to "tour", capleton sang and dj'd with all the energy of
the fire he yells for more of. the crowd yells "more fiya" and jumps and dances along with lighters in the air and candles and
highest grade blazing. capelton blazes through some new lyrics and some new riddims, crowd getting more and more hype. the prophet
stops wheels the venom band and asks how dem ah play and "me nuh even chant to the people dem yet." the prophet laces the crowd with some
some "biblilogical, geological, and female biological" implications and necessities of the all important FIYA!!!! Crowd feeling like
its time to bun tings now.... bombo claaat....

3:20 the first torch is seen blazing from a rolled up poster in front of the stage. the "congress police" as their jackets say
quickly put the fire out without incident.

3:30 the second and third fires start as people light their flyers announcing the next bashment
on fire and wave them in the air. on cue, the lights from the venue snap on, but not too bright and thankfully the sound is
allowed to continue.

3:31 a big fire is almost started as one of the fans goes toward the garbage can in front of the stage
with a lit flyer in hand ready to toss it in. the promoter who was passing the flyers out got their just in time
and it looked like he was cussing the fire kid either for lighting his flyer on fire, or for trying to light the whole
venue on fire, i don't know which.

3:37 princess and i go backstage to check lexxus and take some pics. lexxus strips off his striped sweater and models in his
leather vest, glasses and bare chest for the camera. wrecka relates later that capletons "rocky road" was just in time fi soothe
the massive. crowd begins peaceful and conscious exit.

3:42 capleton is just coming backstage as i go back to the front and the show is done. wrecka and i start the trek back to the
car and decide that the show was overall successful, as capleton's performance and the drama of it all made it worth it.
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