Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage photos
Almost a half-century before it formed in England, Steel Pulse is beating as strong as ever.
A monthlong European tour in July is followed by a full West Coast itinerary in August, including back-to-back nights at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
On Tuesday, Aug. 30, the Grammy winning reggae band will perform at the Crystal Bay Casino. Steel Pulse holds the Crown Room attendance record with 820 in July 2016.
At Steel Pulse’s last CBC show, frontman David Hines showed no ill-effects from a 2016 nearly fatal bout with pneumonia. He was bouncy and spry, as the band played five songs from its first new studio album in 15 years, “Mass Manipulation,” including the song “Rize,” which was a highlight of the show.
Keyboardist and singer Selwyn Brown has been with Steel Pulse since 1977. David “Cirious” Elecciri is the longtime guitarist. The saxophone/clarinet player is James Johnson.
The acclaimed rhythm section has Wayne “C#” Clarke, who performs encased with his drum kit, and bassist “Mr. A.T.” Amlak Tafari, who is the best in the genre, according to longtime Lake Tahoe reggae promoter Robbie Gade. Tafari played in Pato Banton’s original Reggae Revolution Band in the 1990s.
Inspired by Bob Marley and the Wailers album “Catch A Fire,” the founders were from the Handsworth neighborhood of Birmingham, a city in England that parallels with Kingston, Jamaica in its poverty and strife. Much of the band’s catalogue is about social injustice. “Don’t Shoot” was written in response to the killings of Eric Garner and 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Iconic songs include “Babylon Makes the Rules,” “Steppin’ Out,” Ku Klux Klan,” “Black and White Oppressors,” “Roller Skates” and “Your House.”
Steel Pulse was the first non-Jamaican band to win a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.
Hinds, 66, was hospitalized and missed six weeks of shows in early 2016 with pneumonia. “We nearly lost him,” Brown told Tahoe Onstage in an interview that year.
-Tim Parsons
Steel Pulse
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30
Where: Crystal Bay Casino
Opener: tba
Tickets: $30 in advance/ $35 on the day of the show
