“Ever since we met Kenya, no need for running around, Kenya you cool me down!”
With these simple lines, Tarrus Riley explained in a nutshell why Nairobi, and Kenya in particular was dear to him upon his return. It is 7.00 pm and we ride along into the city of Nairobi heading to the KICC Grounds.
Not even the early evening showers seem to have deterred crowds from showing up at the grounds. Sharing their true emotions with us, Kenya’s mighty Reggae band, Gravitti is first on stage.
Gravitti acting as the opener bring a slight different vibe. They play a set of their own records and a mash up of popular international Reggae hits.
Everton Blender takes the stage backed by Gravitti Band. Everton Blender had the crowd singing and dancing. His energy on stage, second to none and his signature whistling bird voice rocks the night.
Blak Soil Band entered the stage, joined by saxophone maestro, Dean Fraser who beamed at the crowd in anticipation of the coming.
The lights come on and the first perceivable difference was the amount of people present, young and old, with a slight dominance of female fans. On stage, the well established, quiet producer, engineer and manager Shane Brown who could be seen at the controls, making some last adjustments to the sound. Before walking to the end of the stage and signalling Tarrus Riley.
With an instrumental intro of his big hit, ‘Gimme Likkle One Drop,’ first came his voice and the verses flowed. He rocked a flowery shirt, black pants, a white cap and matching white sneakers. He smiled at everyone, “Mambo Kenya! Wagwan Kenya!” He thundered.
His set was eruptive from the onset, delivering an eruptions of dances, jumping and yes, the melodic lines and teachings of the Most High. With the new album (to be released in 2019), we can look forward to wonderful songs like ‘Guess Who’, which he performed to a receptive audience.
The spotlight lay on him but not one to be selfish, he shared that spotlight with Dean Fraser whose Redemption Song rendition with the saxophone exploded the venue, Kenyan star, Zikki, with whom they collaborated on the track called, ‘Kamata’. They banter back and forth on stage as Riley belted some lines in Swahili to the excitement of the crowd. Finally Everton Blender joined Tarrus onstage and greeted each other with Lion Paw.
The night was lit as the Kenyan flags alongside the red-gold and green flags were waved all night. A proper gathering of Rastafarians.
Throughout the show he kept close contact with the audience, shaking hands over and over to the delight of the fans. He received his art gift before picking the Kenyan flag from the audience and waving it.
At one points the crowd was almost drowning him and Dean Fraser with their singing. Tarrus took the audience on a breathtaking joyride through ‘Human Nature’, ‘Love Contagious’, ‘Start A New’, ‘Superman’ and many more of his hits.
He also performed ‘Shaka Zulu’ which would have honoured the Kenyan ancestors on the same night Kenya was celebrating its heroes on Mashujaa Day.
After what felt like a 4 hour show, Tarrus and the Blak Soil Band finally said their goodbyes to a deafening long applause that didn’t stop until Tarrus Riley came back and did ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’.
As we get into the car and drive off, we can’t shake the feeling. Nairobi cooled down Tarrus Riley but in actual sense, he cooled us down to a point we never want to recover from this night.
Video interview about the show and his journey in Africa will soon be available, and more photo’s from the concert.