What a burning show!

Last Saturday, Burning Spear unleashed a musical storm that left us breathless and in a musical daze. Now that the smoke has settled, the equipment is packed away and memories are beginning to fade, here’s my take on that unforgettable spectacle.

• The organisers were clearly playing musical chairs with their audience demographics. Lawi is a musical maestro, but he was performing for a crowd that looked like they just emerged from a smoke-filled haze. Seriously, his music deserves a better setting than a stoner’s paradise! There’s a time and place for his tunes, and it’s definitely not in a cloud of smoke!
• Then we had Sangie, a musical gem, yet her audience was a bunch of time-travelling ancestors from the 1970s, with a few 60s and 80s kids thrown in for good measure. The 90s and 2000s kids? They were either babysitting their ancestors or trying to sell you some questionable ‘herbal’ products or wandering around, searching for easy targets to lift phones and wallets from! To these bunch of ancestors, Sangie’s music was about as appealing as bacon at an Adventist convention!
• And let’s not forget Lambanie Dube, the man with more stage names than hits! He fumbled his way through some covers (including a mangled version of Peter Tosh’s 'Rastafari Is') before dishing out his one well-known song, 'Chisoni Nkumatenda'. His only redeeming moment was bringing Hax Momba on stage, only for the MCs to step in and act as the ultimate party poopers.
• Then we had the two-song Burning Spear fan club, the ‘Identity’ and ‘Not Stupid’ squads, who were sobbing like toddlers who lost their ice cream after the reggae legend skipped their favorite tracks. You wouldn’t believe the wild conspiracy theories that were flying around like confetti at a parade: “He’s been bribed by President Lazarus Chakwera to keep those songs off the set-list!” and “He’s avoiding those tunes to prevent a full-blown mosh pit of mayhem!” "Wadya chibanzi cha ganja mkati." Argh, amangwetu!

What nonsense!

But what a (burning) show!