Reggae and other Jamaican music styles are not particularly common in Memphis, so when there are occasions to see reggae bands, I usually jump at the opportunity, such as last Thursday’s concert at the Hi-Tone in Crosstown. Of course, I was already familiar with our superb local dub band the Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, but the other band on the bill, The Slackers, was a complete unknown to me. The CCDE usually perform mostly dub, but somewhat surprised me during their set on this particular night by doing two songs from the rock steady/early reggae era, Toots Hibbert’s “54-46 Was My Number”, and Desmond Dekker’s “Shanty Town”. The Slackers are based in New York City, and proved to be an excellent ska band with live horns. They have released numerous albums since 2000, and the songs they performed were almost strictly originals taken from across their discography. The one exception was the Skatalites cover “Christine keeler”, whose title references a 1962 go-go girl who figured prominently in a British political scandal. When the band tried to end their set, the crowd demanded more, and the Slackers obliged with not one, but about four songs, and it was nearly 1 AM when things broke up.
Keep up with Chinese Connection Dub Embassy:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCCDE
https://ccde.bandcamp.com
https://instagram.com/ccdevibes/
Keep up with The Slackers:
http://www.theslackers.com
https://www.facebook.com/theslackers
https://myspace.com/theslackers
Tweets by Theslackersband
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-slackers/id28428017
Keep up with The Hi-Tone Memphis:
http://www.hitonememphis.com
https://www.facebook.com/hitonememphis
Hi-Tone Memphis
412-414 N Cleveland
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 278-8663