Posted by 
I attended three of the final four years of the High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam as a competition judge, and I encapsulate all of them here in this single missive.
(Don’t judge me – all attendees are “judges” and I was at all three as a journalist, covering the Cup for a string of online ‘zines. To be clear, I wasn’t on a free junket or anything; while my pass for the festivities was supplied for free – a $300+ savings each year – I paid for my own flight and expenses.)
Given that the bulk of the Cannabis Cup was primarily a trade show there is little need for me to cover them individually among these amateur ticket tales of mine. Though every day of the Cup ended with a free concert for the judges, these were invariably hip hop shows and I almost always skipped them in favour of the regular Amsterdam nightlife.
(It might surprise many to learn that finding a venue/coffeeshop/whatever in Amsterdam that plays any music other than hip-hop/rap/electronic music is quite rare. Much like a crotchety old grandpa might lump Abba, The Beatles, and The Clash together into “that infernal Rock and Roll racket” my ignorance of the genres that the kids today are listening to makes me lump them all together into one big indecipherably unpleasant lump that I generally refer to as “hip hop”. In other words: Get off my lawn!)
But on November 27th, 2013, the day before the closing of the 26th (and penultimate) Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, finally there was a show on the schedule that had me interested, if not excited. It was a concert featuring Bob Marley’s band The Wailers, which reminded me that in addition to not being able to find hippie-jams or Floyd-esque spacey rock anywhere in the city, reggae was similarly absent.
Anyway, to save me a chunk of time and to prove that a) I was indeed working in a journalistic capacity at the Cup and b) that I’m really not the kind of guy who should be writing straight-up concert reviews, I present to you verbatim the piece I wrote on this show for some website or another:
The Wailers injected an old-school flavour into the 26th annual High Times Cannabis Cup this week in Amsterdam with their invite-only performance at The Melkweg in the city’s picturesque Leidseplein area.
Hardly an intimate affair, the concert was presented as part of High Times’ annual marijuana competition and trade show. For five nights convention-goers – aka “judges” – are treated to exclusive live entertainment events sponsored by one of many competing seed companies, with Wednesday night’s show hosted by Apothecary Genetics.
In a festival inundated with hip-hop and EDM a night of classic reggae offered a welcome change, and for many of the approximately 900 in attendance the concept of matching an iconic act like The Wailers with their unmistakable connection to worldwide pot culture at the Cannabis Cup was a no-brainer. And for the band to be able to step from the wings and meet an audience freely and openly smoking enormous joints rolled with some of the best marijuana cultivated on the planet, well, on paper it just sounded like a gig that couldn’t miss.
In reality however, it did miss, with The Wailers delivering a half-hearted performance to a crowd perhaps too self-medicated to hold up their end of the energy spectrum. So much more than just an offbeat guitar chunking away, reggae is an intricate and delicate exercise in syncopation, and while The Wailers are unquestionable in their ability to bob and weave their way through some of the greatest hits of the genre, their uninspired delivery and Marley lookalike at the mic placed them firmly in the category of “tribute act,” even if their tenuous connection to reggae’s finest suggests otherwise.
Four songs into the set the band managed to get even the oldest hippies moving at least a little with Buffalo Soldier, the first in a string of ubiquitous Bob Marley hits, though even back-to-back crowd-pleasers like Is This Love, I Shot The Sheriff, and Get Up, Stand Up failed to build any real momentum.
However it’s not like anyone left the room unhappy. Though one would likely find a more energetic and perhaps even more authentic tribute to Bob Marley’s legacy through any number of his children’s bands, the expectant crowd at Melkweg on Wednesday night was itching for the hits. The Wailers supplied them, until even an extended and decidedly flat performance of the set-ending No Woman, No Cry elicited warm appreciation, though it almost seemed like the applause was directed more at the song than the singers.
After an articulated encore that kicked off with a singalong version of Redemption Song followed by a pleasant romp through that most hopeful of pop melodies, Three Little Birds, The Wailers had one last chance with Exodus, a true Marley anthem of vitality and energy. Alas, it was just another excuse for the crowd to enjoy the work of a man long gone from this world at the hands of a band utterly unable to recapture his spirit.
But really, all this mattered little to the judges filtering out of the club exchanging glassy-eyed high-fives. They were there to vote on the greatest pot of the year and these daily concerts were merely peripheral to that main purpose; the proverbial icing on the cake. Great show or not, they had, after all, just seen the world’s most famous reggae band in the heart of Amsterdam at the Cannabis Cup, and really, what could be headier than that?
Now, where to find more of that Rollex OG Kush?
Todd Man Out 