I headed from State College, PA east to Holmdel, NJ to The PNC Bank Center Amphitheatre, a 4-hour drive for me, Monday September 23rd.  Why drive 4 hours for a concert? This was no ordinary concert; this wasn’t really even a concert.  It was The Marley Brothers performing together, beside closing out one night at Cali Vibes in 2022, for the first time in two decades. This was to honor the legacy of one of music’s most influential, instrumental, and important figures, one of society’s most important figures; this was about unity, togetherness, peace, upliftment, unity and LOVE. This was about Bob Marley, as we get closer to what would have been his 80th birthday.  But this was also about Bob’s lineage and history. There aren’t many better line-ups for a concert you will find than the five Marley brothers performing together. 

Between them, Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Ky-Mani and Damian, have amassed 22 Grammy Awards, but it is not the awards that make them stand out. Each and every one of them have amazing talent, talent they of course got from their father, but have taken that talent and made it their own.  Talent grown over the years to become some of reggaes best artist, talents that have taken them from making really good music to making amazing music, and growing into top producers, not only for each other, but so many other artists. My anticipation and excitement was growing as I waiting to get my photo pass so I could enter. I arrived about two hours before the gates opened, talking with others just as excited for what we were about to witness. The smiles from everyone were amazing, you felt love everywhere. As if we were all on the same mission, the same wavelength. Red, gold and green everywhere, Bob Marley shirts, Jamaican flag bandanas, Rasta inspired clothes, that sweet Mary Jane in the air, Jamaican and Ethiopian Flags flying, and talking with friends you have never met before. The line to get in was steady and moving, and finally after waiting a couple of hours, I got my pass.

As I was walking around the venue (I’ve never been there before) I started thinking about the set list; what are they going to play, will it be more about the popular Bob songs, will we get some of, in my opinion, better songs, the ones the masses don’t know as well. I ran into quite a few people I have met over the years while going to reggae concerts.  Once you meet someone at a reggae concert, you pretty much have a friend for life. No exaggeration, this is how it is. We all had the same thought about what songs would be played, we also had this feeling in us, this anticipation and sensation like this was going to be special. I’ve said this before, but it is so fitting; there was a natural mystic flowing through the air.

As we neared show time, the crowd was pretty filled in, with others still coming through the gates. The capacity at The PNC Center is 18,000 and it looked like it was mostly filled.  There is a big yard area in the back, so it is hard to get a true count with my eyes.  But it was a great turn out, no surprise there. Geefus from the iconic Jamaican sound system Stone Love was playing reggae tunes to entertain the crowd as they filtered in. Old school reggae, new reggae, all kinds of reagge coming through the speakers. You could feel the crowds’ vibes as it got darker out and closer to the show. I was brought down to the “pit” shortly before the start.  It really isn’t a pit, you stand in one of the rows near the stage and don’t move for the first three songs that we can photograph.  I say we, it was only myself and the house photographer, so I am fortunate to be the only photographer doing pictures and a review. At 8:45 exactly the lights went down with only one spotlight, Sky High the Mau Mau walks on the stage….IT WAS TIME! The crowd erupted! Sky High asking if we are ready for this journey.  As a video of Bob Marley is shown on the backdrop, we hear Bob chanting;

“Hail Rastafari
I-tinually
Ever faithful
Ever sure
Jah live children
And there's a natural mystic blow through the air (Yeah)” 

The crowd of 18,000 is silent, eyes wide open, ears wide open, hearts wide open. We hear the unmistakable bassline of Aston “Family Man” Barrett flowing as Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Ky-Mani and Damian walk on stage……the crowd still silent, as if in a trance from the bassline. And then they erupted with cheers and screams as Ziggy takes the first verse of “Natural Mystic.” Each brother taking turns on vocals, the way they work on stage together with the synergy and love is amazing.  Not just during this song, but all night long. “Natural Mystic” is one of my favorite songs of Bob and I loved that they started this off with such an amazing song. It set the tone for the night. They hit us with “Get Up, Stand Up” all performing on this singing together with so much energy and force, the crowd’s energy was crazy. Damian rally’s the crowd with; woy yoy….woy yoy yoy yoy, woy yoy….woy yoy yoy yoy! I am trying to enjoy, but I know I have three songs to get some great photos, so while I am dancing and singing, I’m trying to focus on the Marleys. They move onto a song that had so much meaning when Bob wrote it, but still has so much meaning today, “So Much Trouble In The World.” Once again performed by all five brothers, each taking their turn, so much passion and love from each of them. As I was escorted away from the stage, they start “Coming In From The Cold,” surprised to hear this one, but didn’t get to really enjoy since I had to leave the area.  I made my way up to the yard to intermingle with the crowd, pretty much everyone singing and dancing. “Positive Vibration” is next with Julian taking the lead. What stood out to me with this song, but also all night, was the way Julian moved and danced on stage. So much like Bob did on stage, it was as if Bob was guiding his movements. A very cool feeling seeing that. Ky-Mani is next up with “The Heather” another one of my favorite songs of Bob.  Ky-Mani did such a great job on this, flowing so well but when Ranoy Gordon hits us with the guitar solo, wow, the song was taken to another level. Visions of Junior Marvin playing the guitar solo!

I need to mention the band, this is no ordinary band, these are all amazing musicians brought together by The Marley Brothers because of their talent, their work ethic, their love of Bob Marley and the message. We have three amazing voices filling in for the I-Three’s; Tammy, Sherita and Rose.  Their voices are beautiful, and their moves are fantastic. Sean “Young Pow” Diedrick on piano and Llamar “Riff Raff” Brown on keys, keeping the flow going. Kawain Williamson doing his thing on the bass, standing there leading the charge like “Family Man.” Two amazing guitarists taking turns with some amazing solos, Tekeshi Akimoto and Ranoy Gordon. They are both so talented. Norman on percussions and the greatest reggae drummer out there, Wilburn “Squdly” Cole, keeping the beats on point like “Carly” Barrett. And the horns bringing it all together; Glen Holdaway on trumpet, Wesley Etienne on trombone and Oshane Love on sax.  And of course, Flagman Judah doing his thing, waving the flag for the two plus hours of the show! WOW, they sounded amazing, I’d put this group up against any band out there today!

Stephen brings us one of my all-time favorites, “Rebel Music.” Stephen really hits on this one, you can’t help but get chills while listening. I admit, I got a little chocked up listening to this one. Tekeshi hits us with a fantastic guitar solo, sounded like Al Anderson out there playing next to Bob. The first part of this show was amazing to me, so many songs I just love, and Damian brings us another of my favorites, “Concrete Jungle.” What I love about listening to the brothers do these songs, they bring out a vibe of Bob, an essence of Bob, but they still have their own unique styles flowing through each and every song. Damian killed it on “Concrete Jungle”, and I know the crowd agrees with me. All five brothers gave us a great rendition of “Wake Up And Live,” the crowd singing right along to all the words, dancing in their seats, dancing in the lawn, dancing every where. They were awake and alive! Ziggy brings us his song for peace, “Shalom Salaam” from his Dragonfly album. Are we going to see each brother do one of their own songs, was going through my head, or is this played because we need this right now in the world? Ziggy stays up front and is joined by Stephen for “War” and wow did this song hit so well. The message Bob brought us, and now hearing Ziggy and Stephen carrying this through:

“Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war.
That until there are no longer first class
and second class citizens af any nation
Until the color of a man's skin
is of no more significance than the color of his eyes
Me say war.
That until the basic human rights are equally
guaranteed to all, without regard to race
A dis a war.” 

And in true Bob Marley form the band takes us straight through to “No More Trouble” with Damian taking over. There were moments through the night where you just felt Bob Marley in the air, this was one of those moments. Damian finishing it off with some help from the crowd;

Damian: “WE DON’T NEED”

Crowd: “NO MORE TROUBLE”

Julian steps up and brings us “Running Away.” What a great sound and vibe coming from Julian. I love watching Julian dance on stage (more on that later). A song that my son loved when he was little, “Crazy Baldhead” was next up with Ky-Mani leading the way. This is a perfect song for Ky-Mani to bring us, that awesome raspy voice works so well. His younger brother Damian joins him for his version of “Me Name Jr. Gong,” a nice idea bringing the crowd some old school Damian. Ziggy and Stephen are back for a crowd favorite and one that had the crowd singing loudly, “Three Little Birds.” Next up is Damian with “Is This Love” another crowd favorite, as it started to rain on us up in the lawn. But the rain only made the experience better, the entire crowd singing with Damian; “Love, love, love that I’m feeling!” And another amazing guitar solo by Ranoy. We hear Stephen belt out “Oh, please don't you rock my boat, (Don't rock my boat), 'Cause I don't want my boat to be rocking, (Don't rock my boat), Oh, please don't you rock my boat, (Don't rock my boat) No, no, 'Cause I don't want my boat to be rocking (Don't rock my boat).” As he brings us “Satisfy My Soul.” Another song where you can just feel Bob flowing through the air. Another perfect song for Ky-Mani is next, “Buffalo Soldier,” dread lock Rasta! The crowd singing right along with Ky-Mani. I remember the first time I heard this song when I was about 14, it’s the first song from Bob Marley I can remember and first I truly loved.

Julian brings us the classic and crowd favorite “Jamming.” I’ve seen Stephen and Damian many times performing live, Ziggy a few times, but Ky-Mani and Julian only once before.  With Stephen, Damian and Ziggy I can see some Bob characteristics in them, whether it is the voice, the movements, the vibe, there is something there.  But watching and hearing Julian, wow, he has the Bob dance moves down and brings that Bob vibe completely to the stage. So much fun watching him do his thing. It was time to take it easy with Ziggy and “Easy Skanking.” The crowd loved when Ziggy hit them with the first lines; “Excuse me while I light my spliff (spliff), Good God I gotta' take a lift (lift).” Julian hits us with his classic “Boom Draw,” the crowd loving this, so nice seeing them mix in their own songs. Time for Ky-Mani to bring us his hit “New Heights” the crowd singing along with Ky-Mani; “Pass me the blunt and the rolling paper!  Me a go get high like a plane, high like a sky scraper!” As Damian steps to the stage to preach about the health and medical benefits of marijuana, so we were all ready for his and Stephens hit “Medication.” The crowd erupted as soon as Stephen stepped up; “Medication…your medication makes me high!” I’ve heard this live a few times and this time the energy from Stephen and Damian was off the charts.

All the brothers are back for a great rendition of “Kaya,” with Damian hitting us with an amazing flow. They bring the energy to another level with “Iron Lion Zion,” having so much fun on stage together, dancing, vibing and showing so much love to the crowd, but also you can see the love they have for each other. They were showing the strength of Bob and themselves (Iron), the praise and admiration to Haile Selassie (Lion), and praising the Holy land of Ethiopia (Zion). Stephen yelling; “Yeeeaaahhhhh I’m gonna be an Iron like a LION”…..and the crowd responding “IN ZION!” This was a moment that sent chills down my spine.  18,000 people yelling In Zion! We knew this was coming at some point, and we thought this was it, what a way to finish off the night, all five brothers on stage for “Exodus.” They poured their heart souls into this song, and night, and the crowd was right there with them.  The backdrop had an image of Bob Marley and The Wailers with Exodus on top. Throughout the night the backdrop had striking visual images of Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie I, and the amazing artwork by Neville Garrick of the album covers.  It really tied the performances, the songs, the mission, the vision of Bob all together perfectly. I only wish I paid more attention to the backdrop; I was so into the show I am sure I missed some great images. The Marley’s walked off the stage as “Exodus” ended, the crowd going crazy with applause.  We just witness an amazing performance, an amazing dramatic show, an amazing journey, and an amazing mission!

As some of the crowd started to filter out, I knew and so did many others, that we were not done quite yet. Sky High comes back to the stage, the crowd that was filtering out stopped, it got silent, as he asked, “Do you want some more?” YES rings through the air. “Could You Be Loved” starts pumping through the speakers as the brothers make their way back out on stage.  All five brothers taking their turn on this classic and crowd favorite. Every single person singing along with the brothers! Damian getting the crowd to dance and then JUMP up and down, over and over, the energy was crazy. Stephen takes the mic to ask the crowd; “DO YOU LOVE REGGAE MUSIC?” The crowd says YES!  Stephen, I don’t think he was happy with the response says; “NO….do you LOVE reggae music?” The crowd yells…..no screams at the top of their lungs; “YES!” Then he adds, say “LOVE,” the crowd responds, say ‘LOVE,” the crowd responds.  You could feel the love between the Marley’s and their adoring fans. They finish off the night with “One Love” the crowd singing right along with the brothers, this was an old school version of the song, this could have been played 50 years ago by Bob Marley and The Wailers, the perfect way, the perfect song to end the night.

This night, this tour is about the continued mission of Bob Marley, the classic and timeless songs, the message of love and hope and upliftment. But it is also about Bob’s sons, they have been such an intricate part of reggae music and have been carrying the torch and message and mission on. When Bob left this world, he said to Ziggy; “On your way up, take me up. On your way down, don’t let me down.” There is a spiritual connection between Bob and all his children, they don’t have to think about what they are doing, he is with them, guiding them through life, they don’t have to think about it. Everything they do is part of the whole, it’s a part of Bob Marley, and Bob Marley is a part of them. This was one of the greatest experiences I have ever seen.  The music was outstanding, the theatrics was superb, and the brothers were amazing. People thought I was nuts for driving so long for this, but this was more than worth it, I remember this forever, it was truly an emotional, heart pounding, amazing night.

One Love – Todd Judd