Vegas jams airwaves at Silk's Street bash

Apr 08, 2013

Ugandans love dance-hall music, so whoever hatched the idea of bringing in Jamaican veteran Mr. Vegas for this year’s Club Silk Street Jam did their homework well.

By George Wabweyo

Ugandans love dancehall music, so whoever hatched the idea of bringing in Jamaican veteran Mr. Vegas for this year’s Club Silk Street Jam did their homework well.

With a career spanning over a decade and an arsenal of hit songs, he sure was the right pick for the event, which took place Saturday night.

Compared to past street jams that have been known to instantly make revelers feel like a host of sardines in a can, this one got to a slow start, swelling up a little later though and filling up the entire First Street Industrial Area.

Among the Ugandan curtain-raising acts were the likes of newbies King Saha and Khaliffa, who have a way with the crowds despite performing over playback tracks (read miming).

There were others before them, but lackluster performances ought not to be mentioned, right?

Aziz Azion was amazing as was Michael Ross among others. However, The Man had to be guitarist Michael Ouma with his snazzy tweaks and riffs as he played his recently released The Club Banger.

As it inched towards 11:00 pm, Vegas, real name Clifford Smith, hit the stage, repeatedly chanti g “Uganda”. The ladies went wild, the guys bonkers, the dance moves raunchy. Unfortunately, Vegas ended up being a sneak preview performer. He would start on songs like Heads High and Man A Gallis, then 15 seconds into the performance, the deejay’s effects took over and then another tune was in play.

This was really incensing to the crowds, who just wanted to dance!

Finally, he hit a balance towards the end of his almost 45-minute performance. But that was not satiating enough to the crowd. Someone should have informed him of the songs Ugandans love; the ones he paid little attention to.

We loved his Bob Marley and Buju Banton tributes, but the highlight had to be him performing Bruk It Down alongside an out-of-this-world  gyrating dancer.

When he did leave the stage, it was Jose Chameleone who came on with quite an entourage to do what was obviously a mini-hype performance to point people towards his upcoming concert. In less than five minutes, he was off stage, leaving space for a deejay competition, in which truth be told, Deejay Shiru was totally floored by a DJ Stewart from Club Silk. And it was over for those who streamed out, but the party did not stop for those who still wanted to drink and dance!

See related pictorial here

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