Opening the night on the stage of the Eutropia Festival was the 330 Madness Band which warmed up the audience before calling Mr Vegas on stage. Sweet Jamaica opened his set and he kept the pace on with Love Yourself and Gimme A Light, his version of Desmond Dekker’s Israelites. Old hits like Heads High or Bruk It Down mixed well with newer tunes like My Jam and his show ended with a tribute to the original sounds of Jamaica with Byron Lee’s Jamaica Ska.
A few minutes to change the stage and let the Kaushan Band set their instruments and the moment everyone was waiting for arrived. “Them seh Rome a run red? Selassie I know”, Super Cat’s voice from backstage while the Answer Riddim drop gave the first goosebumps to the crowd. “Listen Mr Cat ina Roma”, the Vineyard Style is the first tune he dropped before moving to History while the band keeps on playing the riddim.
“Sekkle Mr Cat because you come fi mash it up”, Mud Up starts just after Come Down, and yes, the Don Dada is in Rome to mash it up and he is doing it, no matter how rusty he was or how long it had been since his last full show, if someone in the crowd had some doubts about his voice and his energy they have already been proved wrong after the first four tunes.
Big and Ready is the next tune lined up for him by the Kaushan Band, and he freestyled for a while before actually starting the song, Dolly My Baby and Cry Fi Di Youth came next and then Boops, welcomed by an explosion of enthusiasm by the crowd.
Too greedy was introduced by a long anti-cocaine speech and was the preamble of one of the hits I’ve heard a billion times and never thought I would have seen performed live, Don Dada. No need to say, the place erupted.
Dem No Worry We and Dem No Care followed straight after, again, the place was on fire but we all understand the show was getting to its end. Super Cat left, came back for a short encore “Them seh Rome Red Hot? Hotter than them mama!”. Ghetto Red Hot, instant forward, instant pull up and, unfortunately the end of the show.
Super Cat’s show was an unmissable event, that gave us the opportunity to witness live an artist that we never thought it was possible to see performing live, even less here in Italy. He is full of energy and he is having fun on stage, and even if this may sound odd and impossible we really hope this European tour can mean the rebirth of his legendary career.
Super Cat has one more gig left in Europe before flying back home, on the 15th of August on the main stage of Rototom Sunsplash. After him the dancehall area will have his sound Killamanjaro, and having seen what has happened at Reggae Geel we are allowed to dream…
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