Honestly, I was a bit nervous while handing my Nevada state ID to the young woman at the side entrance at Knitting Factory Concert House this past Tuesday evening, and frankly there was good reason.  Toots & The Maytals are one of the few existing essential reggae groups still left in the world, and the sheer fact that they are touring in 2011 blows my mind.

To be completely honest, when I arrived at the venue, maybe 15 minutes prior to show time it looked a bit empty.  What happened in the next half hour however, was pure magic.  The Maytals’ band members (minus Toots) took the stage and began playing a little dub for the house, while lead guitarist Carl Harvey announced that Toots’ daughter, Leba Hibbert, would join them for a special opening set.

As I began shooting the floor did begin to fill, and an uplifting atmosphere began to fill the room.  Shortly thereafter Toots took the stage and played what he described as a show comprised of “all #1’s”.  I’d describe it more as the culmination of 50 years of honing a musical craft, and still keeping it fresh enough to get the crowd jumping up and down for nearly an hour straight.

For those who might not be intimately familiar with Toots & The Maytals’ background, we elaborated a bit HERE before the show.

While steadily making my way back and forth across the stage in the pit, I was able to make the most of my three song no flash limit, using my Nikon D7000 armed with the ultra lightweight fast 50mm f/1.8D Nikon prime lens.  For this set I had the ISO pretty high (2000), maintained a wide open aperture of 1.8 and kept the shutter speed at 1/250th of a second; all of which kept the lighting natural, the action frozen in time and the magic right here in Reno, even as the tour moves on.

My only regret?  Not getting more shots of Jackie Jackson…

VIEW THE FULL TOOTS & THE MAYTALS GALLERY HERE

 

Camera(s) Used:

Nikon D7000

Lens(es) Used:

Nikon 50mm f/1.8D

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