How do you know when a party is a party? You know it's a party when you don't need to be drunk in order to enjoy it but you have a drink or two anyway. Soca Madness 2006 was by all definitions a party. At $30 in advance and $40 at the door, it was a small price to pay to temporarily go insane. Congratulations to Alpha Sounds for putting on a wonderful concert.
Soca Madness 2006 was held at the Wyndham Crystal Palace Resort Ballroom on April 8th. Headlining was Machel Montano and Xtatic, featuring Patrice Roberts, Zan and The Colonel. The show started at 11:45 pm with Visage pulling out all the stops with their newest release, "Profilin" featuring Novie on lead vocals. What caught my attention is that for a relatively new song, the audience was singing as if they themselves wrote it. It is obvious that Visage has again struck gold with "Profilin", a song about the regatta experience on the islands.
Shortly after 1 am, Xtatic took the stage and the crowd went wild. Their opening song was "Scandalous" one of the feature songs from Trinidad Carnival 2006. The performance was electrifying. The crowd seemed to feed off of Machel Montano's energy while on stage and the women seemed to be unable to get enough of him, so much so that he had to tell a few not to pull on his trousers. Rightly so, if he had fallen, I'm quite sure one of the women would have abducted him.
Male and female patrons alike enjoyed their renditions of 'Scandalous", "Ms. Good Reputation", "You", "Music Farm", "Tay Lay Lay", and "Toro Toro" among many others.
No one expected what was to come next, The Colonel, son of Trinidadian Soca icon Lord Kitchener, made his way to the stage. For those of you who don't know, he is responsible for such hits as "By the Bar", and "Tremble It", and has written for Destra, Alison Hines, Machel Montano and many of Soca's royalty. As a matter of fact, The Colonel says he feel no pressure to live up to his father's legacy because he has the talent, his own style and the support of his fans and many others.
Also making an appearance were Patrice Roberts, singing "Always Be" accompanied by Zan. This song is on the Top of the Trinidad Carnival 2006 Soca Charts. During an interview conducted with Zan at the Sky Box, Zan says that his inspiration for writing comes from life and all of its experiences. He gets content from being in different places with different people.
'Intermission' for the high energy band Xtatic was performing their renditions of music from such artists as Shaggy, Busta Rhymes, Elephant Man and Bob Marley just to name a few, which proved that Xtatic is more than just a Soca band and is capable of singing in any genre they choose. The transitions were fluid from Pop, to Reggae, Soca to Hip Hop and more.
The night wasn't perfect as two idiots decided to fight in the fete, but Machel in his charismatic way sang to security, "Throw dem out'a de party", and the crowd chimed in with him. The party was on again, an unnamed man given the name 'Mr. Bahamas' by Machel jumped into a crowd of people who were anxiously waiting to catch him…and they did. The concert ended around 3 am, giving patrons an opportunity to meet the band and all performers.
It was a wonderful event, one that must happen again at some point and according to Machel Mantano- soon. He is looking forward to returning to the Bahamas in June with MTV-based Caribbean Television Station TEMPO.
With a performance like that of Soca Madness 2006 it's hard to believe that any serious party-going Bahamian will miss that. Soca Madness was the opportune event to lose your mind if only for a little while.
By: Bodine V. Johnson, Freelance Writer, The Nassau Guardian
