Line-up

Headliner
Easy Star All-Stars Last time in Omaha: 10 years ago

Venue

1200 Douglas Street, 68102, Omaha, NE, US

Easy Star All-Stars biography

Easy Star All-Stars are a reggae collective who debuted in 2003. The brainchild of New York City, U.S based record label Easy Star Records, the act have released seven albums, all of which have been reggae takes on famous rock and pop albums.

The band were formed a year after the label was set up in 1996, and originally worked as the label's house band. As the band worked together more and more often, the group began to gel together properly and a plan was formed to release a set of singles with the house band backing a different singer or DJ each time. The band's first album, a collection of these singles, was released in January 1998, and was so well-received that the label decided to make more records with the Easy Star All-Stars taking as much credit for them as the artists they were backing. Over the next five years, the All-Stars became one of the most acclaimed backing bands in reggae music, and almost as a response to people asking for an album of their own, Easy Star Records released “Dub Side Of The Moon” in 2003.

The band put together a reggae reinterpretation of Pink Floyd's classic record “Dark Side Of The Moon”, and collaborated with several noted reggae singers like Dollarman, Corey Harris and Frankie Paul to record it. The album was a worldwide success, and the subsequent demand lead to the band's first world tour, which saw them play festivals and headline shows all over the world. Ever since then, the band have frequently reconvened to record reggae takes on albums like Radiohead's “Ok Computer” (which became the album “Radiodread”), The Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” (“Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band”), and even Michael Jackson's “Thriller” (“Thrillah”). The band remain to this day an unmissable live proposition, equally good at a festival or in a club, and with so much artistry behind their covers, and the respect of practically everyone in the world of reggae, the Easy Star All-Stars come highly recommended.

Live reviews

Easy Star All-Stars are a fascinating proposition; offering up no real pretense that they have any aspirations of writing and recording their own music, they’ve instead offered four direct cover albums to date, offering up their own takes on classic rock records of the past - but with a twist. With members hailing from both Jamaica and the U.S.A., the All-Stars have given albums like Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band a reggae and dub twist - in fact, the former was even titled ‘The Dub Side of the Moon’. Their other two albums are Radiodread - a song by song reggae remake of Radiohead’s OK Computer - and Dubber Side of the Moon, which offers up a second reinterpretation of that classic Pink Floyd release. More recently, they’ve made a tentative foray into their own material with 2011’s First Light, although their take on Michael Jackson’s Thriller a year later saw them move back into more familiar territory. Their live shows have been predictably trippy, eccentric affairs down the years, with diverse instrumentation bringing their remakes to life in stirring fashion; they’re well worth a watch next time they route some UK dates.

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