Great things come in packages of 3...

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve been slightly disgusted at the lack of good shows around town in the last, well, forever. It seems even the tiny little town of newly-weds and nearly-deads (otherwise known to you as Victoria) is attracting fresher talent than our perfect-in-all-fathomable-respects city of Vancouver. Ha. Let me break it to you folks: Vancouver ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. 365 days of rain, shitty drivers, shut-in people and sky-high rent… top it all off with an utter lack of a decent music scene, in fact, an utter lack of a music scene AT ALL….and we’ve got a winner, folks! I’m out soon guys… Till then, the rant goes on (in my mind, at least)…

Actually, this rant DOES have a purpose. In fact, the Commodore will be playing host to a holy trinity of talent coming this April, finally quashing their days of harboring pathetic tribute bands and sad, scrawny punk rockers scared of, dear god, taking showers. It should be of no surprise then, to you guys at least, knowing my love of good reggae, that this upcoming show will be joining the musical forces of some of the key players in modern reggae/roots/hip-hop: Stephen Marley, Jr. Gong (Damian Marley) and K’naan. You must be familiar, by now, with Stephen and Damian considering my overriding love for these guys, but K’naan, maybe not so much. Let me break his life down into easily digestible bits. Otherwise known as the dustyfoot philosopher, his name literally translates as: traveler who carries the words of peace. Born in war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia – the only country on earth at this point that doesn’t even pretend to have a semblance of government, only factioning war-lords and their clans with a taste for rape and bloodshed of the most unimaginable horror (think Blood Diamond x100)– to a family of poets. Grew up listening to Nas and Rakim playing out of battered sound systems your great-grandma even would deem as ancient. Had his elementary school blown up by rebels, his cousins and best friend shot and/or hacked to death by machetes, women raped and his home pillaged and ransacked in front of his eyes. Escaped as a teenager on the last commercial charter ever to leave the country – none have entered or left since that day more than a decade ago. Left his dad and most of his family back home. Spent the rest of his life to date growing up in the ghettos of the north-western states and Toronto, and started to write hard-hitting, gut-wrenching, slicker-than-slick rhymes about his life back home and his current views of the world. This guy’s deep, guys… And still strugglin’. (Check out his debut: The Dustyfoot Philosopher – it doesn’t disappoint).

So, it’s all coming together. They’re all coming together. April 14. The Commodore. It’s gonna be a second coming. A coming of the gods of reggae and underground hip-hop. Check it out. If you don’t, well… meh! I’m gonna be there, and, frankly, that’s all that matters to me at this point!

I’m out!
-Gabrielle