Kees Dieffenthaller and Kes light up Essence Festival

Organisers of the Essence Festival have reported “a 600 per cent increase in viewership” during the performance by Kes The Band last weekend, as the band delivered a high-energy set for the second annual virtual Essence Fest.

This, in spite of limited promotion of the band’s forthcoming appearance on the site and the festival’s social media platforms, as well as numerous complaints locally that the website was confusing, and many claiming to have missed most of the performance while trying to find the exact page on which it was hosted.

The Essence Fest Talent Team highlighted the increased viewership in an Instagram post. This was the 26th edition of the festival but the second year it was held virtually due to the pandemic, said a media release.

The band of brothers emerged from their self-imposed hiatus on June 26 to represent as the sole Caribbean act hired to perform on the night. Fans from around the globe, logged on to essencestudios.com to witness the first virtual performance from the band since they streamed the IzWe concert finale on February 13 from Sound Forge in St James.

Opening with vivid camera imagery of a Julie mango tree laden with riping fruit, vocalist Kees Dieffenhaller kicked off the half-hour set with a new song entitled Jolene. This sample of its new offering was followed by Magic, featuring Jimmy October and Etienne Charles – a song which now seems tailor-made for the soulful Essence Magazine/Festival audience, the release said.

After producing several virtual shows in recent times, Kes The Band opted not to try to reinvent the wheel and instead filmed a live solo performance from Dieffenthaller on stage with large plasma screens generating the band members playing and other relevant images in the background. Utilising the many strong visual elements captured over the past year, NH Productions combined Kes The Band's latest live performance with poignant visual elements from previous performances and its most recent music videos to create a stunning visual presentation from one of soca music's top live act.

The band's 2018 hit, Hello, flowed easily into last year's Boss Lady, even as Dieffenthaller engaged the audience virtually as he would in person:

"We say hello to all the people seeing us for the first time. This is soca music. We are Kes and we say hello to you...

"The essence of any fete – any party – is boss ladies! Once it have boss ladies, it’s all good, right Essence? Whey de boss ladies? Ah lookin fuh allyuh… es man, Kes The Band. Essence… Wha yuh say? Yuh feelin de soca? Well get up wherever you are!"

Demonstrating the signature finger-flicking hand action, Kes then delivered its 2011 Groovy Soca Monarch winner, Wotless, with this brief introduction:

"Yes we going back to de earlies with this one. Definitely a goldie! Yes. To all those people who wotless and dey know it – we mean you 110 per cent. Right now I just... ah doh care!" Dieffenthaller said.

The signature vocals and hook lines of this Carnival classic were surely not lost on the viewing audience as Dieffenthaller delivered them in pore-raising fashion.

"I go take de blame, yuh hear meh. Ah wha yuh mash up de living room, everything, get on bad, party... This is soca music, Trinidad and Tobago music, yes? Listen and show me right now. Aye, everybody put yuh two hands in de air like so…"

A flambeau then lit up the screen for the start of a powerful rhythmic rendition of this year's IzWe release (which also features Etienne Charles on trumpet) and provided the perfect soundtrack for Dieffenthaller's oration on the rhythm of our nation. Closing with the now classic Savannah Grass, Kes The Band successfully delivered 25-minutes of power rhythms, hooks, vocals, cultural cues and boundless Carnival energy.

"Essence it is a blessing to be a part of the festival this year, but ah wanna see you on the Savannah Grass in Trinidad and Tobago sometime soon right? Ah want tuh see yuh… We go party together, listen...

"We all on de ground... we holding it down... we open the story... is Savannah J'Ouvert Morning, J'Ouvert morning... everybody coming innnnnnn..."

To experience Kes' Essence Festival performance, log on to tinyurl.com/KesEssenceFest or follow the band on Instagram @kesthebandofficial