Bob Marley - Live At The Roxy

If you would rather not read about my tape trading gripes, please skip to the last paragraph now! Back when I used to have hobbies, I would collect things. As I got older my football card collection slowly gave way to concert tapes. Most of my boxes of Maxell XL II S cassette tapes consisted of Phish and Grateful Dead concerts, but I had a few Bob Marley shows as well. The best thing about a Bob Marley concert is that you can fit an entire show onto one 100 minute tape without using filler. Although, Phish and The Grateful Dead shows usually came at the expense of two tapes, both sides of each tape would run into each other with continuous music. Recording a couple songs on a whole disc and leaving the rest blank is a major faux pas in the scientific but frugal tape trading industry. With the advent of the compact disc comes a new way of listening to music, but the idea of music sharing is still the same. If you have the space, fill it! Live at the Roxy aggrevates this pet peeve. The second disc contains only the encore. Yes, the encore is 28 minutes in length with a “Get Up Stand Up -> No More Trouble -> War” medley that epitomizes live Bob Marley with its fair share of “repeat after me” Rastafarian interludes, but 45 plus minutes is still unaccounted for. However, the first disc is full of quintessential Bob Marley. By quintessential, I mean the songs sound exactly how you would expect them to sound. Which begs the larger question: what’s the point of a live CD? The point of Live at the Roxy is to convey the live Bob Marley experience in an intimate setting. The Roxy sounds like a private party more than anything else. If I was in attendance, I could probably hear my own scream. The verdict: If you love Bob Marley, buy this disc. Bob sounds fresh, the guitar solos are crisp and you can feel the Rasta “thumps” reverberating off the walls. In fact, the music almost makes you sad that you missed this live experience. If you like Bob Marley and already own a couple of his discs, there is no need to purchase Live at the Roxy. Bob doesn’t alter his songs much, he just stretches them out. Unfortunately, he doesn’t stretch the encore out long enough. If you don’t like Bob Marley, I’ll pray for your soul. [www.bobmarley.com]