Bermuda debut a hit for Kes the Band

MONDAY, AUGUST 29: If I had to describe this weekend’s Bermuda Summer Jam in one word, that word would be “amazing”.

I knew Kes the Band would put on a good show but I had no idea how awesome the event would be.

After dinner at Wahoo’s on Saturday, my friends and I drove down to Tiger Bay about 10:30pm ready for a great night. A lot of people were already there, more than I had expected as it was early and we all know Bermudians don’t come out to party early.

DJs took the stage to do an early warm up with everything from reggae to soca to fist-pumping pop, hip-hop and more. D’Nice played a great mix of soca that had the crowd jumping around, waving rags and wining like a band was already on stage.

Nadanja and Nishanti Bailey, along with the Digicel promotional girls, entertained the crowd with a hilarious skit. Nadanja was dressed as soca superstar Machel Montano and had three girls come on stage for a dance competition to win a BlackBerry Torch.

But when Nishanti came on stage, the hilarity went up a notch. She posed as a soca artist and made up a song on stage for the crowd to sing and dance to. ‘Now you see it, now you don’t’ was the funniest thing I’ve seen and heard in a long time.

Then the crowd erupted as Kes the Band was announced.

Three dancers wearing red hot pants and white tube tops appeared as the band started playing.

When lead singer Kees Dieffenthaller’s voice came over the sound system, the party went up a few levels.

The band opened with ‘Where Yuh From’, my favourite song from the group. Kees then went into a sneak peak of ‘Wotless’ which of course had the crowd going crazy.

In addition to the band’s own songs, they played soca covers including ‘Advantage’, ‘Wine to the Side’, ‘Go Dung’, ‘Posse’ and many more.

And for those who weren’t huge soca fans, they offered a pop mix with top 40 fist-pumping music and an old school reggae mix that had whistles blowing and horns blaring.

While the band performed ‘Ah Ting’, Kees invited three girls to come on stage and dance. While they were all good, I have to shout out my girl Pearl for putting it on him Bermy style.

The show was amazing and while I can’t pinpoint the best part, it was a great night with spectacular talent on the stage.

Organiser Jason Sukdeo deserves a handclap for a job well done. Can’t wait to what’s in store for next year.