Thievery Corporation Leaves Fans In A Trance

Review & Photos by Lady Cham

November 1, 2009 - When West Indian Times walked into The Norva in Norfolk, VA on Wednesday, October 28th to see the Thievery Corporation Tour we knew that the show that we were about to witness was not going to be anything like the Reggae shows we normally take in.  We arrived just as the show was starting and immediately saw Reggae veteran Sleepy Wonder alongside Sister Pat on stage and already the audience was transfixed by the sound coming from the stage.  The venue was filled with smoke and lit up from the bright lights which flooded from the set up on stage.  The crowd was in a trancelike state from the beginning, it was as though ESL's co-owner Rob Garza, who was set up on keyboards in the middle of the stage, was the pied piper and the patrons were being fused into  the show.

There were 13 musicians on stage which included 6 artists; Sleepy Wonder (Jamaica), Sister Pat (Guyana), Lou Lou (Iran), Karina (Brazil), Sitali (Zambia) and Natalia (Argentina).   I honestly cannot give you in this review the highlight moment of the show as the entire production was awesome.  There was no headliner, there were no over inflated ego's floating around the place, and it was refreshing to see all of the musicians and artists working together as though they were one family.   West Indian Times was proud to see our own Virginia based Jamaican artist Sleepy Wonder mesmerize the crowd with his mile a minute lyrics in raw patois style that the crowd loved, The music throughout the show took the patrons from Africa to Brazil, through Guyana, around India, into the Caribbean and South America and  round the bend into the Middle East. 

Each of the extremely talented musicians hit the stage in rotation at least 4 times and the show had a very sensual and cult like feel to it.  It was amazing to see the power that those on stage had over the audience.  The fans gyrated, closed their eyes and swayed, twirled glow sticks and moved their bodies like sinewy snakes.  They knew the words to each track and reveled in the music.  It was easy to see why Thievery performs to sold out crowds all over the world, the artists and musicians are the crème de la crème of their craft.  It was a show that we would most definitely take in again, though this time I will probably put down the camera and join in the fun.