BLOOD and Peter Ram, the Big Boys (refer to promotion ad) of the third Lime Crop Over Cavalcade last Saturday night, brought the energy expected with the annual festival’s free outdoor event.
And based on the level of excitement exhibited by patrons, everyone else who performed on stage could have sent down a DVD with their act to play on the projector and offer free popcorn.
The very open and well lit King George V Memorial Park exposed a crowd that was unmoved for the majority of the night, don’t care who gave away what, parade whatever or tried in earnest to whip up some kind of movement – soca-wise.
Thank the National Cultural Foundation’s lucky stars that seven of the most energetic young men from the area decided not to watch TV and come out instead.
They took up position left of stage and spilled as much sweat as beer and whatever else they were drinking to make them “do bad”. A tight camera shot of the merry men would fool the unsuspecting into believing that Youth Invasion: Episode 2 was the riotous “push back, wine back” session the band of the night said it was going to be.
Polite applause and jostling for a good spot took up the first three hours of the programme before The Band Inferno tried to “hot things up”.
The near half-hour long segment failed to ignite patrons – except of course the Flag-waving Seven – who were more interested in the scents and sights in their immediate surroundings, or how they looked in tight, short pants.
Family groups were most evident. Parents stood monitoring the small ones, while the teenagers and younger adults walked around and chatted with friends or sought out delicacies.
The talented ones on stage – from Inches to Queen T to Kadaffi – got some support from their obvious fans, but the fun-filled, dancing and rag-waving atmosphere generally associated with these cavalcades was absent.
That was until Peter Ram got on stage. Even then the “crowd surge” seemed more like a couple patrons suddenly found more room up front. Just as well, his Wood Ants song ate up all of just over four minutes, if you don’t include the time he spent stopping and starting the band.
To his credit, he actually brought the crowd alive. Who wasn’t dancing at least peered stageward to see what the commotion was all about.
Blood put in his usual solid performance, unfortunately to a crowd that was making its way down the long road to the highway – the only time they actually “brek a sweat”. (MH)
