Bahamas Conch :)
February 6, 2007 | posted by Braddigan | 4 Comments

Conch is hard to pronounce. i know it looks easy, but go on and try it. ok, now 99% of you are wrong... and me too, because it's pronounced "conk." yep, they just mispelled it, that's all :) i was wondering why every time i said conch with a "ch" everyone always smiled... at first i thought maybe it was just their favorite food, but as it turns out that word tends to separate us tourist kooks from the true islanders with a laugh - anyway, i be a true islandah naw mon... conk. so rey, tiago, james, and i just got back from a handful of days on San Salvador, one of the most eastern islands in the Bahamas where Christopher Columbus is said to have landed on Oct 12, 1492. it's a beautiful sight to behold bc there's not much to see other than water and sand. around 1,500 people live on the island, 90% of which are locals... and there's hardly any build up--only a few towns and a lot of green brush. Coconut juice, a boatload of sashimi'd wahoo, and sandra's banana cake too... yea...

Our good friend joe had a vision of bringing the islanders together under the sun and on the beach and so he brought us there to provide the tunes from the stage. The island's main watering hole, the Juice Bar, is a bunch of dance rooms, each literally lined with speakers and subs and the music is always blasting the thoughts right out of your head! I think all the bass thumpin' from the subs adjusted my heart beat. We MacGyver'd a sound system with those speakers and a mixed bag of cords, microphones and some borrowed amps and set up in an open air room attached to the Juice Bar. We started playing just in time to watch the sunset on the beach, and soon after dusk a grill sparked up and carloads of smiling faces pulled up.

Saturday morning was busy - snorkeling, spear fishing, reading, and just chilling in the sun :) as the band was preparing songs back at the house for the celebration, joe and a crew of island architects were building the stage! Right on the beach, between a monument to Columbus' landing, a monument to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, and a beach volleyball court! Just around the time the stage was finished - built on sand with cement blocks, 2x4s, and plywood (it even had steps!) - Rey speared his first fish!

The show ended just after the sun disappeared behind the waves with an island jam of Fallin' - literally the island was jamming on Rey's drums!!! We invited all the kids on stage and quickly rearranged all the mics so that every kid with a drum, shaker, tambourine or clapping hands could be heard across the beach! So many smiles that night...

the Bahamas. wow, what a beautiful bunch of islands... as you fly over them they start looking more and more like little stepping stones to paradise- but when you land you find the truest beauty in the people that come grinnin'... And if you don't have a smile to give back, you might as well go home. "too blessed to be stressed" i saw hanging in Wenzalee's car window... and her husband Floyd's smile speaks the same wisdom. Granville's eyes sparkle like the waters behind him... Kenny the Carver just sits chippin away at blocks of wood laughing the day away...

Just remember CONK - its the way to becoming a true islandah!

Labels: Bahamas, concert, tour