Toots and The Maytals - August 5, 2001 @Wild Duck, Eugene, OR

Despite my friends' disgust of the ticket price, I still wanted to go see Toots and The Maytals. Tickets were $18 (plus service charge) in advance or $20 at the door, if they weren't sold out. Now, I know that Toots and The Maytals are not a ska outfit anymore, but in these ska-deprived times I'll take what I can get.

More Time opened the show; they are a local (Eugene) reggae band. Overall, I liked More Time. They played some generic tunes (some covers, some not) but they are really good musicians. I honestly don't remember any of the songs they did, except for one about police, I think.

This show was part of a reggae series that the Wild Duck was putting on so I went into the show not expecting to hear a lot of ska. I was hoping that I would at least hear a few of their ska classics. For me, the classics would be "54-46 Was My Number," "Monkey Man," and "Pressure Drop." Now don't get me wrong, I like reggae, I just prefer ska and rocksteady to it. I got to hear two of my favorite songs, so I was happy. The Wild Duck actually had a really good mix and the volume wasn't at an ear-shattering level. I only had two complaints about the show. My first complaint would be that there was too much audience-participation chants going on. Also, a lot of the songs would have a slow reggae tempo and then they'd speed it up really fast at the end of the songs. I thought that it detracted from the songs a bit and made them a tad cheesy.

I digress... Toots still has the voice and the energy of a 25 year old and I'd go see him anytime!