Photos and Review by: Lev Avery-Peck
Show photos HERE
Reggae by definition combines a native Jamaican musical style with features of rock and soul. Since their introduction into the music scene in 1995, Slightly Stoopid has taken this basic characterization of reggae to an entirely new height. In their hands, a reggae background is only the foundation of a musical product that fuses the more traditional style with rock, blues, hip-hop and funk. Hear just one Slightly Stoopid song, and you will never fail to identify this combination of genres again. You will instantly know it and love it when a Slightly Stoopid song has been teed up. And that is exactly the kind of immediate familiarity and excitement that the band created Friday night, March 28. Smooth bass lines, bluesy sax riffs, unexpected piano solos, and always their funked out reggae foundation and contagious beat: from the first note until the last, Stoopid had the crowd in awe with exhilarated delight at the show they put on.
For almost twenty years Slightly Stoopid has conquered stages across the country, from major festivals to venues like Lupos Heartbreak Hotel, large enough to host a big crowd, like tonight, but intimate enough to make everyone’s experience up-close and personal . And just like on the biggest stages in the world, Slightly Stoopid went all out and gave this first ever sold out crowd at Lupos an incredible show. They did not skip a beat for over two and a half hours, keeping the crowd enraptured by their melodies and words. While they played crowd favorites like Collie Man, Jet Plane and 2 AM, they also jammed a lot more than we might usually see. That was was an awesome surprise, bringing yet another dynamic to the show and making it that much better. Absolutely everyone in the capacity crowd was bouncing their head, swaying their arms and singing along. The roar and feeling was like standing in a stadium of 20,000 people, but being among the lucky ones in the first few rows of seats.
Drawing a younger crowd from Providence and the nearby University of Rhode Island as well as what seemed to be an older generation of people up into their 40s, Slightly Stoopid’s following is one like none other. Their fans travel to see them over and over again, because every show is a new, exciting and different experience. The old favorites, the jams, Lupos’ funky atmosphere, and the people all around whom I shared this experience with—all of these things meant that Slightly Stoopid really entertained…just as they always do.
Slightly Stoopid at Lupos Heartbreak Hotel -RI
