Steel Pulse — California Roots Festival, 2019

Live concert captured on 24 May 2019 at the California Roots Festival in Monterey, California. British band Steel Pulse, formed in Birmingham in the 1970s and a major figure of roots reggae outside Jamaica, delivers a nine-song set drawing on its classics and most committed material. From « Soldiers » to « Ku Klux Klan », through « Babylon Makes the Rules » and a cover of the Grateful Dead’s « Franklin’s Tower », this full concert illustrates the militant power and spiritual depth that built the reputation of the outfit led by David Hinds. Carried by polished vocal harmonies, horns and a relentless rhythm section, the performance shows that Steel Pulse remains, more than forty years after its debut, a living reference of conscious reggae. For the enthusiast of the genre, this capture offers an authentic live concert, filmed in the sunny atmosphere of one of the great reggae festivals of the American West Coast, where the Rasta message and the roots groove remain intact.