Mike says

wow i'm finally blogging on sxm. i thought i'd be at it more but the rest are making up for that! i will try to finish this up quick before i have to be back up in the room to finish packing up so we can check out of the hotel (Maho Sonesta). After that we are heading over to L'Esplanade! Just yesterday L'Esplanade was in the newspapers for making the top ten (#7) of most luxurious hotels in the Caribbean and Mexico!! But wait...that's not even the best part...we are staying there completely free!! The owner has been a fan of ours ever since day 1..since OG had only a demo of 3 songs and we were playing at the Reggae Cafe. Well ..she got word (thanks mum!) of the fact we were looking for places to stay since our 5 days to Grenada had to be cancelled due to lack of financing for the events we were supposed to play at. Actually I had already arranged that we would be staying at a couple good friends' houses...but when Kristin approached me with that offer
 I couldn't refuse! If you want to see a bit for yourself why we are so happy to be heading over there today:www.lesplanade.com  We are getting 2 double lofts and 2 oversized lofts.

Do we deserve all this kindness people are showing us down here? So far two shows behind us and we definitely rocked the house both times. We are also all smiles down here! No way around that actually. I guess it goes hand-in-hand. The better we play the better the crowd reacts. The more energy from the crowd the better we play. The more we smile the more people smile back at us. The friendlier people are to us the more we smile. It just seems like one great cycle of positive vibrations down here on St. Maarten/ St. Martin.

The Alley
Last night we played at the Alley. We started by soundchecking at around 5pm. I popped in to Island Radio next door for a quick interview with ERB. He's a good guy. Interview was quite fun. I told the island about Benny's injury. Wait...did we tell you yet about Benny's back injury?? THAT was a SCARY situation i can tell you that much. I got back to The Alley to find out there were quite a few technical issues going on with the sound. All's well that ends well though..and it definitely ended well. The crowd started showing up at around 9:30. The sign said OG at 9pm but the island knows we always play about an hour later. By 10pm the place was packed! I was asking around for some ibuprophin for Benny. He might need it to drum!!

We started at around 10:45. Yep..island style...and we played our part in it too! haha. So by the time we started the crowd was ready! They were more than ready. They all seemed so psyched! From the first notes this became very obvious. Everybody was dancing and singing along. It was special. This was OUR crowd. So many friends and family members were there. And so many people who saw us at Kim Sha for the first time. Lots who happened to still be on vacation on the island. It was amazing! Everytime we have played at the Alley it has been special but last night topped them all. And that was not easy to be honest. We'd had some great shows there!

My soar throat. I was afraid it wouldn't hold up. I was feeling it still from pushing it too far on Sunday and then a few nights of staying out too late and too much liquor etc. You know how that goes. Also talking to so many friendly people over the loud music..that can take its toll! So I was getting nervous. The show was about to start and my throat felt dry and closed. So I resorted to something I had never tried before and that many singers from the islands had been suggesting to me over the years...COGNAC! SO i had a shot of cognac. VOILA!! My throat felt more open! Amazing! It was working! I was so happy when we started My Roots and I knew right away that I could pull it off. Such a relief.


We played two sets. In the break I gave out two toys (for adults) which were given by the Adult Toy Box. It's fun giving our fans gifts besides the music!

We finished the night with a real bang at a little past 1AM. We even jammed a song in which a local reggae singer (Ilements) joined us and also the singer of Roots Down Below (a very cool band from Boston who also played at the regatta)



Ok..time to check out of here and move to L'Esplanade...the finest hotel I will have every stayed at after this trip.