Mile High Massive – October 13th – Fillmore Auditorium

Photos by Tim Dwenger

Last Saturday night the Fillmore played host to a six hour Reggae-thon featuring some fantastic performances.  The evening opened with Denver Reggae Social Club and hot on their heels was Roots of Creation with a special set that featured some stellar Reggae interpretations of Grateful Dead songs.  I’ve been digging their recent Grateful Dub album over the past several months, so it was great to see these guys lay the tunes down live.  A brief instrumental snippet of “Shakedown Street” served to get the set rolling but it was “They Love Each Other” that really started to turn people’s heads.  By the time these guys were into “Deal” and “Sugaree” the room was filling up and people were shakin’ it.  Roots didn’t stick to the Dead’s catalog for the whole set and offered up the classic “54-46 Was My Number” and a couple of originals that helped to convince us all that they weren’t just a one trick pony.  The set closed with a great version of “China Cat Sunflower” followed by “Fire On The Mountain” and they left many in the room wanting more.

Next up was Easy Star All Stars and, where Roots of Creation was on the rootsy side of the spectrum, Easy Star cranked up the Dub and took us deep with some Pink Floyd covers that they released 15 years ago on their Dub Side of the Moon album.  With classic Floyd hits filling the room there was no doubt that people were getting amped up for David Hines and Steel Pulse.  Taking the stage shortly before 11, the legendary Reggae crew didn’t disappoint as they dropped hit after hit including “Worth His Weight In Gold (Rally Round)” from the band’s 1982 LP True Democracy, “Chant a Psalm,” and a personal favorite of mine “Not King James Version.”  43 years into their career, Steel Pulse is still going strong and were the perfect headliner for this massive night of Reggae in Denver.