KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

It was a con­cert with a lot of hype, but when thou­sands of pa­trons showed up at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Port-of-Spain, for Machel Mon­tano 40: One Show on Fri­day night, many were left up­set be­fore a note was played.

There was a traf­fic night­mare along Wright­son Road as pa­trons were anx­ious to see Mon­tano's first con­cert on home soil since stag­ing his last Machel Mon­day show in 2020. If you were one of those pa­trons who lis­tened to Mon­tano's urg­ings to reach the sta­di­um at the 6 pm open­ing time, you might have been able to get a good park. Some of the usu­al park­ing venues were ei­ther closed or pre-booked. It left pa­trons park­ing on the sur­round­ing grass, pave­ments or far away street where there was no se­cu­ri­ty.

If you pur­chased a tick­et for the Di­a­mond tier, you had se­cured park­ing with a pri­vate en­trance. How­ev­er, many had to for­sake their park­ing be­cause of long queues and oth­er is­sues with get­ting in­to the venue.

Those who ar­rived at 6 pm lined up out­side the sta­di­um wait­ing for the gates to open. Pa­trons com­plained heav­i­ly, but there was a lack of in­for­ma­tion from the pro­mot­er. The gates even­tu­al­ly opened at 9 pm. But it was not un­til 10 pm that the show start­ed, which in­clud­ed a few un­der­whelm­ing open­ing acts. There were some frus­trat­ing pe­ri­ods when a DJ would play long ses­sions of old so­ca, leav­ing the au­di­ence stand­ing still.

Mon­tano's team is yet to re­spond to the con­cerns raised about the show's or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Patrons at Machel Montano 40: One Show at Hasely Crawford Stadium, Wrigshton Road, Port-of-Spain, on Friday night.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

No love for those in Gen­er­al

With the best view of the stage, the Plat­inum sec­tion was the place to be. It was where the big flags and ban­danas were waved - a throw­back to the So­ca Monarch and Brass Fes­ti­val of yes­ter­years. It was where women wined on women, women wined on men, and men wined on men with un­bri­dled eu­pho­ria.

Those in gen­er­al ad­mis­sion voiced their dis­plea­sure open­ly. Af­ter the dra­ma out­side, the sound sys­tem was in­ad­e­quate for the sec­tion in the back. Un­der­stand­ing what the artistes were say­ing was of­ten chal­leng­ing, and even though there were screens at the front of the stage, it was too far for prop­er view­ing. There was a size­able crowd where pa­trons had beach chairs, cool­ers, and rags. And al­though there was a fan­cy sailor and Dame Lor­raine to hype up the pa­trons, it was not enough.

The sold-out Di­a­mond sec­tion was all about pam­per­ing for those who spent heav­i­ly to view the con­cert on the el­e­vat­ed plat­form with a pre­mi­um bar, food court, and pri­vate wash­rooms. It was hard to get the pa­trons' re­ac­tions as se­cu­ri­ty blocked me­dia ac­cess, even to some artistes and the me­dia lounge.

Well-dressed ladies at Machel Montano 40: One Show.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

So­cial me­dia bash­ing

Pa­trons took their dis­plea­sure with the event to so­cial me­dia, with sev­er­al call­ing the con­cert a fail­ure. Some were dis­pleased with the Afrobeats. Some wished they kept their tick­et mon­ey and used it for an­oth­er event or stayed home.

"Dear Machel, this is by far the worst con­cert I have even been to in my life," one so­cial me­dia user wrote.
An­oth­er pa­tron com­plained about the late open­ing of the gates and in­suf­fi­cient park­ing.

"I end­ed up not even get­ting in­side be­cause, ab­solute­ly no park­ing. One set of traf­fic and no­body could go any­where. I wast­ed my good mon­ey on over­priced tick­ets. When I saw him in Bar­clays in NYC, the ex­pe­ri­ence was the com­plete op­po­site."

But it was not all bad, as there was some pos­i­tive feed­back.

"Well, you all, Machel Mon­tano, One Show, was lit. Ah will nev­er miss ah next Car­ni­val again. Well done," a so­cial me­dia user wrote. Some even post­ed videos and gave favourable com­men­taries on Mon­tano's per­for­mance.

Nigerian Grammy and BET award-winning singer Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun “WizKid” performing.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

The au­di­ence shows Niger­ian artistes love

The event that fus­es So­ca and Afro beats is a mouth­wa­ter­ing con­cept, but un­for­tu­nate­ly, it did not live up to the hype. 

At 11 pm, Niger­ian singer Re­ma brought West African vibes to the con­cert. It was his pop­u­lar song Calm Down that elicit­ed screams from the crowd.

Eigh­teen min­utes in­to Sat­ur­day, one of Nige­ria's biggest su­per­stars, Wiz­Kid, en­tered with the dance-evok­ing song, Joro. How­ev­er, it lacked the vigour ex­pect­ed from an au­di­ence that screamed at the sound of the artiste's voice. He per­formed his pop­u­lar hits Come Clos­er, Essence, Ojueleg­ba and Mood and even showed that he knew so­ca, singing Kevin Lit­tle's Turn Me On.

De­spite her songs not hav­ing as high a tem­po as so­ca, Arya Starr brought a groovy ren­di­tion of her songs Good Samar­i­tan and Rush.

Machel and friends siz­zle

Whether the show was a hit or ter­ri­ble de­pend­ed on who you asked. In an event cel­e­brat­ing Mon­tano's 40th an­niver­sary of be­ing one of the best in the so­ca busi­ness, he had to res­cue his own show from the drab it could have been.

Be­fore his en­trance, Machel 40-One Show was not a fan­tas­tic Fri­day that should have dis­placed the So­ca Monarch. When he start­ed, Mon­tano showed why many con­sid­er him the GOAT of so­ca as he shared a con­nec­tion with his au­di­ence who fol­lowed his every com­mand. His set in­clud­ed African chants, steel­pan from Siparia Del­tones and Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra and mu­sic from Le­ston Paul and Eti­enne Charles.

Start­ing with his 2023 hit, The Spir­it, he im­me­di­ate­ly be­gan in­vok­ing the fete essence in­nate to Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans. Mon­tano rolled back the years with Mr Hap­py and mu­sic from the last decade, such as Like a Boss and Haunt­ed.

Dancers going through their routine.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

But if any­one was get­ting tired as the night grew old, Aaron "Voice" St Louis sure­ly re-en­er­gised them with Long Live So­ca and Nice­ness. While there was bit­ter­ness in years gone by, it seems that by­gones were by­gones be­tween Mon­tano and his ri­val, Neil "Iw­er" George, who shared the stage and pumped up the crowd.

By the time the driz­zle came, it was al­most im­pos­si­ble for the crowd to leave as so­ca temptress Patrice Roberts graced the stage, per­form­ing Band of the Year, a 2006 col­lab­o­ra­tion with Mon­tano. When they sang their 2023 hit Like Yuh­self, it caused all man­ner of crazi­ness among those in front of the stage.

But Nailah Black­man and Skin­ny Fab­u­lous showed some pow­er with their so­ca hit, Come Home, which brought love to the house. De­stra Gar­cia joined Mon­tano to per­form Shake the Place. The show end­ed with Mon­tano and a live­ly Su­perblue per­form­ing So­ca King­dom.

While many hoped Trinidad-born rap­per Nic­ki Mi­naj would sur­prise them at the con­cert af­ter adding her voice to the Shake the Place remix, Mon­tano said she could not get there in time. He as­sured them that she would be on the road win­ing for Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day.

While there was no In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion this year, the con­cert gave up­com­ing per­form­ers like Yung Bred­da and Tem­pa a chance on a big stage.

There was al­so a trib­ute to the late Dr Leroy "Black Stal­in" Cal­liste, with his chil­dren join­ing Mon­tano and oth­ers in per­form­ing sev­er­al ca­lyp­soes.