Search - Lee Perry :: Live at Maritime Hall

This is truly the next best thing to witnessing reggae avatar and hip-hop forefather Lee "Scratch" Perry rant live and direct to the bass-heavy rhythms of Neal "Mad Professor" Fraser's Robotiks band. "Hello San Francisco," Scratch announces in his gruff, phlegmy voice at the concert's start. "I was the first scientist / who burnt down his laboratory / the Black Arc studio / property of Lee Scratch Perry." Those few rhymes neatly encapsulate the incident that first set folk awondering if Perry was compos mentis. Later antics, like demands for champagne 'n' urine cocktails written into recording contracts and flashing MTV Europe's audience, continue to fuel this long debate. But who cares if Scratch is crazy or just playing? Those stream-of-consciousness tidbits studded with evocative Rasta terminology play neatly against the Robotiks' reggae vamps, and legions of roots reggae fans are drawn to the spectacle like filings to a magnet. --Elena Oumano