KCRW Nights Continue with Reggae

Last night I attended the Hollywood Bowl, enjoying songs from groups I would not have heard of if it weren’t for this diverse, eclectic Public Radio Station. On the bill was Israel Vibrations, Maxi Priest, The Hepcats, and Culture. A tremendous conglomeration of both old and new Reggae artists, both traditional and bordering on jazz or hip-hop, all contributing to a fun, relaxed ambience of fellowship and love for the evening. Sitting next to us on the right-hand side was an older man and his wife and teenage daughter. This man was decidedly not comfortable with the goings-on around him as there were a pair of twenty-something young men semi-covertly smoking marijuana in front of him. There was also a small family of a mother with her 2 teenage sons and older daughter. They seemed completely at peace with the groove and funky flow of the environment. The elder man and his family left before the headliners took to the main stage, but he did not leave my mine. I wonder what would have happened had he let go of the judgmental shroud that prevented him from reveling in the loving nature of the evening. Was it the illegalities happening around him that caused his skin to grow tight and let its discomfiture seep into his every move? Or was there something more then the naked eye could see?

I’ll never know, yet always wonder.