Buju Banton's Return: Long Walk to Freedom Tour NYC

Buju Banton delivered an exciting return to the U.S. in New York City, kicking off his Long Walk to Freedom Tour in the U.S. I'm sharing my concert experience from securing those coveted tickets to soaking in the lively pre-show vibes at UBS Arena's unique beer garden, this episode captures every exciting detail. Discover how Buju's powerful performance had us all on our feet despite a few technical hiccups, proving why he remains an indomitable force in reggae music.

Whether you're a die-hard Buju fan or just discovering his magic, this episode offers a recount of an unforgettable night filled with reggae classic, stage presence, community spirit, and pure musical joy. Tune in and feel the energy of Buju's long-awaited return!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Style and Vibes podcast with yours truly. If you are new here, welcome to the family. If you are returning, welcome back family. And you guys know I have been outside on a cake with all of the concerts that are happening here in New York City. I shared a reel not too long ago. If you're following me on Instagram, there are so many different concerts that are happening. I shared one earlier and I'm back with another one Today.

Speaker 1: 0:33

We are talking about Bujabantan's Long Walk to Freedom Tour that really kicked off here in the States with their New York show. So by now, you may or may not have known Boudia was not able to travel here for about 15 years, so this is his first time being back here on US soil. If you follow him and his career, you saw that he was able to get back his visa so that he could perform. So that left fans really excited to see what he was going to do first. And he made his first stop, new York, and he did two shows back to back at the UBS Arena in Long Island. So I was able to grab a few tickets for my family and myself to do the second show. So the first show there was a whole lot of drama in terms of just being able to get tickets. However, they added a show the same day and I was able to get the Sunday show, so he did two shows back to back and I'm sure both shows were really great. So, of course, because I saw the second day, I had to ignore everything that I saw online from the day before, so that I was pleasantly surprised at the experience that I got. And if you know that, buja also did his long walk to freedom tour in the Caribbean, so of course, his first stop was Jamaica a while ago. This is a few years ago now, and so to see him here in the states was really exciting. The last time that I had seen buju was probably when he performed at madison square garden in the theater um, and that was years ago. I don't want to age myself, but that was a very long time ago.

Speaker 1: 2:20

But he did not disappoint in this show. But you know who did disappoint that. The song people then butchered was great. The show was amazing, but he could not interact with the audience as much as he wanted. He is definitely the ultimate performer because he powered through, but his microphone just kept getting um feedback and so he couldn't come to the end of the stage. He couldn't sit there. You could tell he wanted to and he wanted to interact with his fans a little bit more. So I think that's what would give the show a little bit of a like a notch off of the A-plus performance.

Speaker 1: 3:00

What we did get is really the sound, people, them. So I want to take a step back and kind of rewind. I didn't get to tell you guys about the venue. So UBS Arena is located on the Queens Long Island border, so I'm really glad they didn't do it in Barclays, because you guys know I hate the sound in there. It's horrible.

Speaker 1: 3:21

And the venue had a garden like a beer garden, so everyone was able to kind of come out early and kind of chill. They had a dj out there. They had someone asking questions about budja, their favorite songs, his career. They were able to grab a drink before the doors open and and play domino. I saw people playing ludy. It was like a nice little vibe pre-concert vibe, um that they were able to do in that space and that is really unique to the venue. Um, so I really loved um the ubs arena. I had been there once before for an r&b only event um, but I hadn't been to the beer garden. It was colder um during the time that I had been there, so this one was really nice to kind of see, like what they had there. So I'm sure that that one it's a great venue to kind of go to and kind of experience a little early. So I do highly recommend if you have any concerts going into that venue, you should definitely take advantage.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And to be honest, I was really surprised at the sound because I had previously been there and I heard the sound and it sounded pretty good. But it wasn't for a performance, it was just DJs kind of playing. And when the opener who was? I think it was Bobby Condors and Jabba. I think Bobby Condors was mixing the music and you guys know Jabba is the mics man. So we didn't hear any of that feedback or anything like that. But of course, once you start to incorporate instruments and bands and the different sounds, um, from the microphones, the backup singers, is a bit of a different transition. If you. I don't want to go into like all the engineering terminologies, but it was just his mic in particular, like at times you couldn't hear him or the band and the music and the singer, the backup singers, were a little bit louder than he was at points in his performance.

Speaker 1: 5:19

So how did he start the set? And to be completely transparent again, I only went one day, not both days. On the day that I went he started off with a very high energy dance all set. He kind of like rinsed through a whole bunch of songs in his catalog. I was just like wait a minute, he's going too fast. Why is he doing all of these songs? What is he gonna perform later? But you know, butch is one of those artists that have so many songs in his catalog that he kind of had to rinse through a lot of those hits really early. And I think it was a good decision because we were kind of had to rinse through a lot of those hits really early. And I think it was a good decision because we were kind of high off the energy of the early warm set from Bobby Condor's and Jabba and of course people really want to get moving. And then he kind of slowed things down and I really did enjoy that. He could kind of take it up a level and then bring it back down and then take it up a level and then bring it back down and then take it up a level and then bring it back down, and he did that, I think, about twice, and then he kind of ended. It was his birthday. So his family, his sister, who's his backup singer, who I did not know he kind of introduced her towards the end when he was introducing his band. They got him a cake and you know know the crowd saying happy birthday to him.

Speaker 1: 6:32

What I did see online from the show the day before was Nadine Sutherland was a special guest there and like Nadine is that goody. Like she looked good and she was there dancing. Like Nadine Sutherland has so much energy and she brought it to the stage. If you don't know the story between the song that she had and Wiki Diki, it's like she didn't even know that she had the song with him. It's really interesting. I got to see if I can find the story behind how that song with Buju came about with her. So it was nice to see them perform that together online anyway. So we didn't get that as special guests, but we did get a special guest Remy came to support, which is very unexpected, very different, very much a surprise that the crowd really enjoyed Fat Joe.

Speaker 1: 7:21

You guys know how much he loves dancehall music. He did Lean Back as a kind of a homage to Jamaican dancehall, so he performed that and him and Remy Ma actually did another song together. So it was a nice energy, nice vibe that he brought. But really going back to Buja and his catalog, I think what I enjoyed most was the slower moments when he did like untold stories and hills and valleys, because you could really hear the emotional connection that he has to his songs and it felt very spiritual. So it was really fun. We had an amazing time really just experiencing Buja in this manner. And right after that he announced his US tour, if you will. So he's coming to a good number of major cities, so I highly recommend that you go.

Speaker 1: 8:16

He is definitely one of the great performers that we have still, representing reggae and dancehall and that bridge of the two genres, and doing it really well. His Toshai Lil Band is amazing, so they sounded really good. Of course, he is such a great performer interacting with the audience and just getting the crowd going. And then his catalog like you have a connection. You can visualize and picture where you were when you heard these songs and it brings up so much nostalgia. He probably performed songs that you might have forgotten about, but he still got it, you know. So you got to see the greats while they are here. So I highly encourage you guys to go see it, enjoy it if you can, but for me, that's it. I just wanted to share my experience with you here. If you went, let me know, send me a note in the comment section, send me a DM on Instagram. Would love to hear your thoughts as well. So until next time, leah to my peeps.

Speaker 2: 9:26

Thanks for listening to the latest episode of the Style and Vibes podcast. If you like what you hear and I know you do share it with your friends and family. If you want more, make sure you visit style stylingvibescom and follow us on our social channels, twitter and Instagram. At stylingvibes. Until next time, lea tummy peeps.