It was the veterans' night at Pier One, but, to paraphrase Orwell, while all veterans may be created equal, some proved more equal than others.
A fair-sized audience was treated to commendable outings from the likes of General Trees, even as they rued the absence of "Cool Ruler" Gregory Isaacs whose no-show went unexplained.
The first act to take the show above the realm of the ordinary was Brent Dowe, who, while businesslike in the delivery of his hit catalogue, added that needed extra flourish in his rapport with the audience. In truth, they hardly needed any coaxing to rock to the likes of You're Gonna Lose and Come Dance With Me.
Near the end of the act, and with the band not quite in sync with him, Dowe affably broke into an a cappella rendition of Little Nut Tree, justly eliciting screams and lighters from a delighted audience.
He closed with Rivers Of Babylon (his big hit taken from the Psalms and which Euro-Disco group Boney M covered into a smash hit) creating a segue to Judy Mowatt who, supported by her own band, wasted little time establishing herself. She opened with Thank You Lord before delivering what is still widely considered her signature tune, Black Woman.
Thereafter, amid brief exhortations to the audience to follow her on the Christian path (some met with shouts of "Rastafari!") Mowatt and her backing crew delivered an excellent run of covers which, while recorded by secular artistes, proved highly adaptable to the cause.
First up was the Donna Summer/Musical Youth combo Unconditional Love. Then, after a brief but near transcendent vocal intro from one of her back-up singers, Mowatt launched into a suitably spirited version of Bob Dylan's Knocking On Heaven's Door (popularised by Randy Crawford).
The night would not have been complete without invoking the memory of the "Gong" (Bob Marley), and in their rendition of Redemption Song Mowatt and Co reached their peak, taking the song out of its customary dirge-like tempo and infusing it with an insistent mid-tempo with some R&B inflections.
Not quite on the other side of the coin, the Colonel Josey Wales followed Mowatt with a show that hearkened, as emcee Dennis Howard pointed out, to the days of "hardcore dancehall" when sound systems like Sturgav and Kilamanjaro ruled the roost, and Josey alongside other giants like Charlie Chaplin, Brigadier Jerry and Nicodemus earned the designation of kings of the dancehall.
There was no "Briggy" on Wednesday night, but Chaplin loped onto the stage to perform one of their classic combinations. With the Colonel having already scored with Bushwhacked and Kingston Hot, he teamed up with Chaplin to deliver a stint peppered with up-to-the-minute extempo riffs on the usual range of topics: homosexuals, current dancehall trends and women.
For a vocal group going over 30 years, the Mighty Diamonds looked and sounded none the worse for wear as they took the Sumfest stage. But they seemed just a notch below their usual energy level.
Even after delivering classics like Prophecy and I Need A Roof, by the time they ended with, of all things, the gospel number Come To The Feast (If You Only Knew The Blessings That Salvation Brings..) there was hardly any interest either way.
Hardly enough energy, even to endure what had the makings of sparkling sets by the "Godfather" Alton Ellis and "Mr 1,000 Volts" John Holt, who closed the night.
