Live Review: The Black Seeds

This multifaceted eight-piece band filled their support slot themselves. Each one of them in turn spun a short set of their favourite soul, hip hop and reggae tunes, acting DJ in a modest way without introduction or fanfare.

The main show got underway with the first of many rumbling drum rolls leading into the relentless skank rhythm of Sometimes Enough. Front and centre were lead vocalists Daniel Weetman, surrounded by his cocoon of percussion, and vocalist/guitarist Barnaby Weir. While Weir has the more distinctive voice, Weetman had a pure intensity on stage and was dripping with sweat only two songs in.

The Black Seeds are all about the groove and the party. They're a rough and tumble roots-reggae collective of well-dressed lads wearing about four berets between them. Their most acute moments were during on-stage jam sessions where the instrumentalists got to strut their stuff. Jabin Ward on saxophone and Barrett Hocking on trumpet tore up the place with their staccato rhythms and soulful solos on songs like the ballad, So True, from 2004's On The Sun.

Tim Jarray on bass had some really funky lines that sometimes got lost in the pulsing melee of sound, but definitely deserve recognition, and on Fire the whole crew had the crowd screaming “yeah!” in an enthusiastic call and response.

Their live sound is a lot heavier than their buoyant recordings and their ruthless 90-minute set didn't leave any room for stage banter, but the crowd was amped anyway and there wasn't a still moment the entire night. Best performance goes to guitarist Mike Fabulous, whose guitar was an extension of his body as he danced and pulled off a fiery solo battle with keyboardist Nigel Patterson on the encore, Afrophone.

The Black Seeds perform with so much energy and finesse that they could have played until dawn and still held a captive audience grooving by their side.