From the pit
Soca doesn't ask permission, and Kes the Band brought the "Roots, Rock, Soca" Tour into Leader Bank Pavilion and turned a Boston crowd into carnival. Kees Dieffenthaller fronts one of Trinidad & Tobago's finest exports — a band that plays the genre with actual musicianship, not just tracks and a hype man. "Savannah Grass," "Hello," "Famalay" — the anthems came one after another and the tent answered every one, flags up, hips gone, the wotless energy soca lives on. If you've never worked a soca show from the pit, understand that it is cardio: the band doesn't stand still, Kes covers the whole stage, and the crowd behind you is a wave you can feel through the barricade. You shoot it loose, you shoot it fast, and you accept that half your best frames come from moments you didn't plan. There's a running joke in these frames — a certain someone who kept turning up exactly where the light was best — and I left those in, because the pit has a personality too. Boston doesn't get enough real soca, so when a band of this caliber brings the road march north, it's an event. These images are Trinidad carnival transplanted to the Seaport for one July night: sweat and flags and Famalay, the harbor breeze losing badly to the bass.
Words & photography — Bobby Shakes