The Wailers
Last night I saw The Wailers at the Mercury Ballroom in Louisville. The band Bob Marley started (first known as Bob Marley and The Wailers in ’63) and played in before he died of cancer in ’81. A few of the members are originals- actually played with and knew Marley.
It was a surreal show for me. I have listened to their music since I can remember. Maybe my parents didn’t seek it out to share with me as I was young, but I always knew it when I heard it, and have always loved the sound and feel of reggae.
The crowd was the most diverse I’d ever been apart of for a show (other than Bonnaroo but the size difference is substantial) which I was pretty excited about. I felt the coming-together of so many types of people with at least one defining thing in common: a love for this music. With so much love in this music, I figured no one could be all-bad. Some were my not-so-favorite type: rowdy, flailing their beer cups, yell-talking the entire time and not paying a lick of attention to the music until a well-known song came on and they could sing along to the chorus. And I’m continually in awe at the amount of time people spend on their phones while at shows- not just taking constant pictures and videotaping entire songs, holding their phone up and blocking the view of the person behind them, but texting too. OK, so I really don’t like it. But there were also others who seemed locked into a pretty nostalgic state. We got it- the whole slowing down, pausing aspect shared in this music. We would notice one another and smile.
Of course many joints were lit during the show. I’m sure many were smarter about hiding it, but all around me the occurrence was pretty obvious. One girl in front of me was offered by a fellow show-goer (donning a steely face hat) and like an idiot she blew it straight up into the air. We were very near the front too. That was the first scolding “You can’t be smoking in here! You can’t smoke in here!” Three times near me, people got yelled at from the positioned security guards waving their hands face-level cutting flat X’s from their elbow to their hands. Not sure if anything or anyone was confiscated, I tried not to focus on that.
I noticed these distractions of course, but I wasn’t bothered (sometimes I wonder if I even like going to shows- not a big crowd person.) The entire time I just kept thinking about Bob Marley’s life, and mainly how much positive influence he and this band have and continue to spread to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. I felt so much love and peace from the music. Being there firsthand is always better than listening to it digitally. It might be the only style of music I can just naturally groove to, which I couldn’t help but do the entire time. 
(A big thanks to getoutlouisville for these tickets which I won through you! Locals- follow them on instagram as they give away tickets often.)
Allison Goodan 