Kingston is on the edge this week

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

In between bands Raging Fire and Mojarock, the fourth annual Kingston on the Edge (KOTE) festival was officially opened at Redbones the Blues Café, 1 Argyle Road, New Kingston, on Friday night.

The 'speechifying' was truncated, Omar Francis of the festival's founding quintet (one member having migrated) closing off by including the festival's tag line, cheerily announcing "we say love, art, liberation, big up, welcome to Kingston on the Edge 2010".

With three art displays - Citi Life (wearable art), Art in the Garden and Untitled by the Core Insight (which officially opened the Redbones Gallery), two bands and a pair of bars, there was a lot for the substantial audience to see, hear and savour.

As well as purchase, what with most of the art pieces on sale, although a few had the 'NFS' advisory posted where a price tag would have normally been. Carl Sway and Abiola displayed their wearable art in 'Citi Life' (a trio of ladies in full black - one outfit delectably slinky - gave a practical demonstration of Abiola's creations' wearability), while Art in the Garden had the most participants. In the Redbones Gallery, The Core Insight's artists included Khalil Deane, Natalie Barnes and Chandis.

DJ Afifa found cohesion in a diverse serving of music from the turntables.

It was rockers and rock from the stage, Raging Fire up first with a full serving of reggae and Mojahrock following with more of the Jamaican drum and bass staple for most of their first segment, bringing up the break with a wonderful dip into the 'rock' of their name.

Raging Fire, with Kumar on lead vocals, started with a social commentary, their opening song lyrically a distant but recognisable relative to The Wailers' Concrete Jungle, the song telling the oppressor "I will be there to see you going down in flames".

Bass man Pele took over for the second song, a love song to his special lady ("Girl I'm delighted to be in your presence once again"), making for a fun moment where his intent was accepted.

Raging Fire is a strong rockers band, but as performers on Friday night they tried to push the audience to participate too much, too soon. On their third song, Far Away, the travelling musician's song of comfort to the woman he leaves behind and longs to come back to, Kumar tried to get the audience to sing along, to very weak results. They had better luck - at least, with the women - where the men were required to sing and the ladies croon the end of the line.

Mojarock opened with guitarist and senior member Maurice Gordon soloing on guitar before the pair of lead singers, Phoebe and Jermaine stepped up.

The Jamaica Tourist Board is KOTE's main financial support. The band delighted in and defined reggae in song ("Reggae music is the one for me/keep me rocking and my sprit free"), Jermaine following with "a little love song I wrote" and Phoebe doing a good job on lead as Mojahrock delivered Fade Away.

Informed by recent events in west Kingston is Prisoner, developed from a striking image Phoebe saw on television. The ladies in the audience especially appreciated the Jermaine-led take on Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, but where the lead singers really got animated was in the rock ending to the band's first segment, Phoebe leading #1 Zero, closing her eyes and obviously putting heart and soul into the song.

Jermaine put hips, flying legs and twirls of his long black shoes into Kinky Reggae, which brought up intermission, descending the few inches from the defined stage area to get closer to a welcoming audience.

The weeklong KOTE continues with 'Lateral Minds' at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and 'Film Night' at Redbones. 'Theatre on the Edge' is at the Philip Sherlock Centre, UWI, tomorrow evening and 'Jazz and Things' is at the Bolivar Gallery, Grove Road, and a 'Musical Jam Session; at Tony's Bar, Chelsea Avenue, on Wednesday.