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Andrew Tosh, Sister I-Live, and the Reggae Angels in Berkeley on 4/16/04 Several days ago, on April 16th, 2004, I went to see a show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley, CA, featuring Reggae Angels, Sister I-Live, and Andrew Tosh. Andrew Tosh and Reggae Angels are currently on tour together, and this was the 2nd show of their tour. Those of us at the event were truly blessed with a conscious show with pure energy. As is per my usual situation at shows, I showed up early, walking in the show to hear the Reggae Angels band sound check, during which they were playing How can You Do That by Sister I-Live, From that point, I knew I was in for an excellent show. At around 10:15, the Emcee (Rocky Bailey) introduced The Reggae Angels to the stage. The band for this show consisted of Sandrum on drums, Steve Hoffman on Keyboards, Toho Saunders on bass, Vince Black and Brett Harmon on guitar, and Fenton, Cynthia Roots and Alreca Smith on Vocals. The band started off with Which Road Will You Choose off the album of the same name, and the crowd was already filled with energy. They went through all the crowd favorites, including Never Give It Up, Divine Wisdom, Go With The Flow, Never Give It Up, Feed the Hungry; which were sung by Fenton, and then during the set Cynthia Roots sang Corrupt Not and Positive Spirits. A little while into their set, Fenton brought up his daughters Angel and Trinity to sing the song Ungrateful from their album "A Heart With Love". After that, Fenton took the mic again and the band played a few more songs, Including a new one called Make Blessings. They ended the show with the crowd favorite Where is the Love and by the time Fenton, Cynthia, and Alreca left the stage the crowd was filled with energy and completely thrilled by the performance. After a quick break, the crowd was ready for Sister I-Live. With the same band backing, Sister I-Live came up to do her energetic set that fused Roots, Dancehall, and even Soca. She opened up with Searching for Jah off of her album "Jealousy". She also played songs like How can You Do That, and her Herb anthem In The Valley.. I am not terribly familiar with her earlier work, so I can't name most of the songs on her set list. However, her show was crucial, and although I'm more of a roots fan, it was nice to see the Dancehall being represented at the show. We all waited in anticipation for awhile longer until Mr. Andrew Tosh, son of the legendary Peter Tosh took the stage. He was backed by the Reggae Angels band, along with Sister I-Live, Alreca smith, and another female backing vocalist who also did backing vocals for I-Live . He opened the show with Coming In Hot and I knew my first intuition about the show being a surreal experience was true. Everything from the Reggae Angels soundchcek I saw to the time I had to leave was simply amazing. Andrew focused a lot on his original material, as well as covers of his father. He lead the crowd in a chant of "We Got to come together cause We Are One!" and played some excellent songs including Make Place for the Youth, Things I Used to Do, and one of my personal Andrew Tosh favorites Message from Jah. Unfortunately, at about 1:00 AM my ride came and I had to leave the show. One thing I truly enjoyed about this show, was the vibe in the crowd. Everyone there was friendly. While at other shows, usually the bigger ones, I've had situations with people in the crowd brining out negativity, everyone at Ashkenaz that night had a pure, friendly vibe. If anyone needed to sit down at someone else's table, they would let them, people would watch your jacket for you, etc.. It was most definitely one of the best shows I've been too in a long time. Special thanks to all the performers involved as well as the people at Ashkenaz. The show was great, and all these artists should not be missed.
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