Toots and the Maytals
I went to this show with my friend who helped me become a big Reggae fan back in High School, which meant Toots, Sly and Robbie and other great artists.
Toots and The Maytals featured the original lineup as they appeared in the Harder They Come film. This was my first of a bunch of special performances by Toots over the years.
This show was a rare and important event, a great accomplishment for The Haunt. The longstanding reggae legend Toots Hibbert was to play at the tiny Haunt in the alley on Green Street in Ithaca. I don't know how owner Jon Peterson did it but somehow he convinced the Maytals to make an appearance at the Haunt on the night before their Rochester gig.
When the roadies went to unload the truck, they saw the inside of the place and insisted that there was no way the band's equipment was going to fit on the stage. Appropriate pressure was asserted by management and they streamlined the set-up on the fly, using only certain pieces of their regular stage set-up. My roommate and I went to both the early and the late shows that night. The next day we woke up and immediately decided we were heading to Rochester that afternoon.
I noted on the stub that the Majestics opened for Toots.
My roommate and I woke up on the morning after the Ithaca shows and decided we would drive to Rochester for another Toots show. We arrived just before Toots took the stage, and after parking in a lot right across the street from the venue we could hear the band start playing - and we shaked and danced straight into the theatre as the band opened with Pressure Drop.
Three Toots and The Maytals shows in two days, quite an accompishment!
The Lonestar Cafe was downtown on Fifth Avenue and 13th St. This Toots show took place over the Winter holiday break, I believe, but cannot otherwise confirm the date.
Toots is still leading all the dance moves on stage. At 70-something and after sustaining a head injury when his head was introduced to a glass bottle a little while back, he’s not doing too bad. And his arms look he’s Springsteen on the Born in the USA Tour.
