Photos by Cindy Palmer Photography & Rae

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OMG!!! Anybody remember Tilden Hall in Brooklyn???? Well my darlings when I tell you dat place was juss so! Hot as ... it was so surreal! There we were looking for parking for almost 45 mins. I kept thinking to myself, I thought Brooklyn was bad .... dang! Anywho, we eventually found a spot just two blocks away (lucky for us). We were excited to check out Machel in Queens for the first time this year (the last time he was in Queens might have very well been back in 2006 for Jungle Wet Fete, when it was Rum Jungle), so we hastily made our way to the club.

Bam! As we reach it was like DE HEAT! AHHHHH!!!! Now mind you, we have been to Maracas before and it is a fabulous venue. It’s very spacious and is always quite a comfortable fetting experience because their AC is always on point. Not so this time. It was apparent that something was either definitely wrong as heck or the were trying to conserve energy during the second heat wave of the summer. It turns out that the AC broke down and repairs were unsuccessful thus far. Hey that didn't stop us from staying and neither did it stop almost over a thousand people easy. De place was ram!

So there we were sweating like crack heads feining, trying not to slip on the floor while balancing our drinks (in this case, our cameras) and jamming all at the same time. Fettin' is a skill yuh know!! It comes encoded in Trini DNA or yuh have tuh have true TRINI peeps to embed it for you! *lol* Jokes!

You would never know the level of discomfort with the temperature in the club because it was nonstop jamming and drinking! BTW, don’t mind the sweat stains on some folks ok. We did say it was hot! Folks were standing on anything just jam at a different angle! The DJ was on point with the reggae boy ... nice vibes. Big steups though, I missed my Chutney session. Vex! Truss, Maracas is the best spot to get a dose of Chutney music to rinse out yuh ears good an propa. Allyuh done know sometimes you have to screw de light bulb once in a while!

Mr. Montano was just about to hit the stage, and we realized then that it was just him and the HD dancers ... no band? The crowd transformed into a tight knit intoxicated ball of bedlam! EEEEEFFF yuh see lakaray! Po me ... I had to take cover in the crowd and crawl out small, small! LOL! I vaguely recall a roll call, but for what... bear Trini's was in de place! I ain't see not one random flag from any other country! Queens love Machel bad bad!

He hit us with a medley of his latest and greatest stetting it of with my personal fav, "Push Bumpers". Unfortunately the sound system was meager at best but that did not stop us from having a time! When was the last time you heard "Big Truck" indoors? Yeah yeah!!!! Maaannn... we just saw Machel last week at Six Flags (view gallery) and now here I am this week! *lol* TJJ is on maximum MM HD overload, and we love it!!!

It was a great time in de HEAT!!! Maracas we will see you soon.

Psst... you know there was the jokiest fist tight in de middle ah de road afterwards! Now if it was BK, sorry I would not have any info, but Queens not too bad for spectating! *lol* Long story short, somebody got knocked the bleep out!!! COLD!!!! Somebody bring de man a blanket!!

- Petite