This year's "Fully Loaded" wasnt anything to call home about well, only to complain, that is.
On Sunday night, though most of the sound systems including Moschino, Zero Tolerance and 360 didn't live up to the expectations of the crowd and got booed as soon as their first track fell, a few managed to give the crowd their moneys worth.
When Canadian sound system , Vertex hit the stage with a few Konshens dubs, ("Scratchy B fi stop move like fish...Code Red a di biggest p--- *u*ker") a myriad of torches were lit. Then when he pulled a dub on Kartels Trailer Load (Money Fi Spen) with lines like: Sky Juice a suffah like dawg ... Vertex had become one of the most memorable acts for the night.
Soon after, Swamp King, who had been referred to in a Konshens dub played by Vertex (Swamp King need fi go wash him locks) asked to be allowed to showcase his skills earlier than scheduled. Unfortunately, his limited and general Portmore Empire and Junior Gong dubs werent enough to slaughter an armed fly and he was booed off stage.
The sound selectors werent the only ones who failed to impress the crowd: artistes such as Macka Diamond, Harry Toddler, Voicemail, G-Whizz (as soon as he started his intro), were booed and clapped offstage or as MC Nuffy declared, When dem naw gwaan good juss say inna di beach.
Other artistes including Stacious, Nanko, Teflon, Shane O, I Octane, Lutan Fiyah, Etana, the ih goody, good, good princess, Pamputtae, Terror 3000 Andrew and Wadda *lo**, Dr. Evil, Chino and Jim Laden managed to impress the weary crowd. When Nesbeth hit the stage with songs including, Board House and others, he had the crowd roaring; however, he made a dreadful mistake it seems, when he asked television host and singer, Empress, to join him on stage for a new collaboration.
At least one minute into the song, the crowds boos almost knocked the two offstage, but Empress stood firm after Nesbeth left the stage, and went into Aretha Franklyns R.E.S.P.E.C.T. to which she got even louder claps and boos.
She naw hear wi or wha? asked an irate patron, who started to boo louder at the steadfast Empress. She exited after introducing the next performer.
When the sound clashes resumed, some of the top sounds were *lo**line with their Razz and Piggy dub (no that isnt a typo error); Japanese sound system, Barrier Free, who entered in a karate outfit while Bob Marleys Natural Mystic played, Area Code 876 and Renaissance Disco.
This, however, wasnt enough to appease the crowd at 3:20 a.m. who were still looking to see acts including Matterhorn, Bounty Killer, Mavado, Busy Signal and others. Alas, because of the Noise Abatement Act, the party soon came to an end, with hardly any of those artistes performing.
876 radio said that it was boring and drawn out but the short performances by the artists sorta brought back the crowd, including a good performance by aidonia