A little over a year ago we sent FADER soca correspondent Aliya Best to cover Machel Montano at Madison Square Garden, there were dudes on stilts and little kids going nuts on stage. This year she caught his performance at Radio City Music Hall, which also included kids, only this time they wore gold suits and actually performed. Check out her rundown after the jump.
I’ve seen Machel perform like 50 different times in various venues. Madison Square Garden (twice!), at Wingate Park in Brooklyn, on Boxing Day in Trinidad…I’ve come to expect certain things from a Machel concert: superhuman energy, beautiful girls in costumes, Machel playing with his nipple rings, Machel moving his waist like water, Machel’s crotch being grabbed by the ladies in the front row, and—big surprise—I got all of that.
This time around, the highlight was 9-year-old Parvana Maharaj, who performed with Machel and held his own with style and a great voice. Following that, a little guy named Timmel Flament Rivas came out in a gold suit and performed Machel’s “Too Young to Soca.” You might notice I didn’t get many good photos of Machel, mainly because his outfits were so shiny he just kept coming out looking like god. Overall, I think the show could be summed up by the woman standing on her chair behind me:
After security came over to try to get her down, rather than complying she dared them to get her down. Machel fans are serious.
—Aliya Best
