Shocking performances on the first day of República do Reggae 2004. Exclusive coverage!

A date to remember. That was the first night of República do Reggae 2004. The audience showed up in force at Wet'n Wild – Salvador/BA to see the great national Reggae heavyweights, such as Tribo de Jah, Nengo Vieira, Geraldo Cristal, Reggae Style, Dagô Miranda, among others, besides the world-renowned South African Lucky Dube. The night was opened by Arthur Cardoso, former member of band Adão Negro. Arthur showed several songs from the old repertoire, besides new compositions from the recent solo phase. The presence of Tribo de Jah, Reggae Style and Dagô Miranda was very important. During some artists' performances, more than special guest appearances took place that gave an even greater shine to the event. Continuing, we had brilliant shows by Geraldo Cristal and Nengo Vieira - two artists from Bahia who have a long history and are part of national Reggae history. Both represented very well the root of Jamaican music, committed, with conscious lyrics and well-crafted arrangements made on good earth. Audience in delirium and euphoric shouts marked Lucky Dube's entrance with his complete band on stage. Lucky, who was all in white, didn't stop for a second and performed various choreographies with musicians and backing vocals, who put on a show of their own. Old successes like "It's not easy" and "Back to my Roots", essentially African songs, could be heard, besides hits from the newest album, "The other Side", released in 2003. The show lasted almost 2 hours. It was easy to hear the audience calling for the star, who returned for another meeting with the crowd. With a very tight schedule due to another presentation Lucky Dube had to make right after in the city of Feira de Santana, which is approximately 100 km from Salvador, left many fans who brought gifts and wanted to see the idol up close a little disappointed. Despite some of the audience leaving, the scene was stolen by paulista band Reggae Style, which in the modest opinion of various people present, made the show of the night. The band carries all Jamaican characteristics – heavy sound, conscious lyrics and even the instruments and costumes. With a bass very similar to Errol "Flabba" Holt's from the legendary Jamaican band Roots Radics and a guitar as striking as Jamaican Moja Nya's, Reggae Style left everyone quite impressed with the performance. To complete, we also had a participation by Dagô Miranda, perhaps the artist who today has one of the most consistent works in national Reggae. Dagô sang two songs from his album "Dreadlock", and left only a feeling that we need to have a complete show by the artist in Salvador. To close the night, or rather start the day (since the sun had already risen), Ed Vox, with band Papoula, stirred up the audience that was still very numerous and showed they didn't want to leave so soon. Once again República do Reggae proved to be an extremely important event for Reggae in Bahia and Brazil. We then look forward to the second day of the event, which will have Gregory Isaacs and other quite well-known national bands.

EVENT IMAGES

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