Machel pumps big crowd at bSquare

With a bigger crowd than any other day so far this week Machel Montano had even the vagrants pumping their flags and jumping at bmobile’s Soca in bSquare concert yesterday. Montano was the third headline act at bmobile’s free lunchtime concert series Soca in bSquare. Monday saw performances from Bunji Garlin, Fay Ann Lyons-Alvarez and the Asylum band followed by Dil E Nadan on Tuesday. The concert started with an early high-energy performance from soca sensation Swappi. Montano came on stage at noon as screams and cheers erupted from fans as he belted out this year’s Power Soca offering Pump Yuh Flag. He followed up with his other releases for Carnival 2012, Bottle of Rum, On D Avenue and Revelling.

As Machel performed on stage various flag crews such as Two Face, HD Limers and Stag waved massive flags over the heads of jumping revellers. The crowd inside the square almost touched the four corners while some people stood outside on the sidewalks, bmobile rags in hand, enjoying the music. At about 12.20 pm HD band member Farmer Nappy entered the stage singing his song Surrender as he encouraged fans to “feel the love”. He remained on stage as Montano began his performance of Make You Rock followed by the 2008 crowd favourite One More Wine. The duo was then joined by I Am Soca singer Patrice Roberts who joined Montano in singing Band of The Year.

Montano paused for a moment to show the crowd the different types of wine based on geographical location. Fans ate it up as he demonstrated the “west” wine which was somewhat stiff and “social”. “I feel I’m still too young to soca because I don’t think my Vibes could ever finish,” shouted Machel before launching into a performance of Vibes Cyah Done. As in last year’s performance Montano took off his sweat-drenched T-shirt, wrung out the sweat then flung the garment into the waiting crowd. It was caught by a male fan. The free concert series continues today with performances by Blaxx and Roy Cape with KI from Chutney Band JMC 3Veni.