By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Zimbabwean music star Tocky Vibes cuts a lone figure on stage.
While most of his contemporaries perform with full bands – such as the likes of Killer T and Freeman – Tocky Vibes has gone back to the old days of playing backtracks.
Whenever he has a live show, Tocky Vibes shows up alone. This has been going on for some time now!
Take for instance at the Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance National Finals in Masvingo early this month – where he staged one of his most prominent solos.
There, Tocky Vibes shared the stage with Jah Prayzah and Killer T, who were both supported by their bands.
Luckily for Tocky, he was the first musician to take to the stage when the stadium was still filling up. Who can guess how the crowd would have reacted if he had performed much later!
Not only did Tocky Vibes put up a lukewarm act, he was just a loner on stage.
Relying on yesteryear hits, Tocky Vibes would belt it out single handedly while here and there he would point the microphone into the crowd to try and see if the crowd was singing along to the music.
Sadly, Vibes’ vibe was low, especially where the emcees were continuously hyping the other two acts.
So Tocky Vibes went back and forth, performing his new and old songs. But then there wasn’t plenty to like and enjoy on stage. It was just him.
And the backtracks were randomly thrown by the lousy DJ who had no idea that for every live performance there has to be three stages – earth, wind and fire.
The performance should reach a crescendo in the middle and then end in style.
But because the music was just being randomly played, the performance was an anti-climax. Worse still Tocky Vibes’s voice went hoarse. We know shows are hard to come by these days, but there is no harm in Tocky Vibes investing in his act – precisely a live band!
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