Misty In Roots // NAC - 21.6.13

Support tonight comes from Norwich’s very own six piece The Piratones who it would appear are sounding very much like Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, who in the process have now somehow been joined by PJ Harvey. It’s a great combination that is certainly warming the hearts of those that are already inside the Arts Centre.

Now, this is not such a straight forward a choice as it may at first appear as the air outside is warm, smelling sweet and the cold Red Stripe is also tasting particularly good on this beautiful summer's evening.  As the song says “Sun is shining and the weather is sweet, makes you want to move your dancing feet”. But The Piratones front pair of Dan Law and Georgia King are both working it real good tonight and the crowd are absolutely loving it and it proves to be a good decision to come in doors and watch their impressive set.

They certainly get the crowd going early doors and in the process there are some various forms of extremely bad chicken wing reggae style dancing going on down the front.

Worse is to follow as it happens, as it proves to be a good warm up for the bad Dad dancing that follows from certain members of the audience when the legendary Misty In Roots enter the stage. Let’s just say that some of the dancing certainly doesn’t get any better, in fact it gets a whole lot worse! Thankfully the theme of really good music does continue tonight with Misty In Roots.

They were back in the day one of John Peel’s favourite bands and this is where I first heard this amazing band. Way back then, when I was a teenager I was constantly glued to His Master's Radio 1 evening show, listening out for such acts to come down the radio’s airwaves. Now with a career that’s spanning into its fourth decade they are very much a cult act. Indeed we are reminded several times during the evening of their involvement during the seventies and eighties in the protest movements that engulfed that particular period of unsettlement in London Town and English big City life in general, such as the rock against racism movement. They are still a force to be reckoned with and it was no surprise to see the ‘Sold Out’ signs up tonight. 

The dance floor was immediately banging with their influential jerky reggae anthems and it was weird seeing Brixton come to little St Benedict’s Street in Norwich.

As we arrived two very large plush black painted mini buses pulled up with blacked out windows and out stepped all of these cool Rastafarian dudes. It made me chuckle. Can the coolest street in Norwich have ever looked this cool before? Well probably not?  Whether it has ever looked this cool or not does not even need answering, but it was a real spectacle as tonight the venue felt more like somewhere between the streets of Babylon, Brixton, and Trench Town and yes now Norwich was getting in on the mix. Our fine City of Norwich was indeed Misty In Roots' ghetto for the evening and it was a real treat to see such legends in the flesh, doing what they do better than any other true genuine original reggae band. 

With a four piece horn section blasting out at the back of the tight stage in support of the five main members the bopping bodies were in full flow, nodding heads were bobbing up and down and the dance floor was burning red hot. Tonight’s set would’ve been felt in Babylon, even if it was Norwich that was burning and not Babylon this evening as the long set unfolded.  

‘Cover Up’, the song about Stephen Lawrence, is as poignant and topical today just as it was when it was when the teenager was murdered on the streets of London.