Doors at 8:30 pm; Show at 9:00 pm

Tickets $12

Drummer, freestyle vocalist, and bandleader RazorBlade directs the Blade Band, one of the hottest conscious groups in contemporary reggae. While growing up in Westmoreland, Jamaica, RazorBlade and other youngsters would get together and play music. Even though few could afford real instruments, they were determined to create sound with anything they could get their hands on: cardboard boxes, empty bottles, tin cans. He later immigrated to the U.S. and found that drums captured his heart. He says of the experience, “the drums actually chose me.” Since then, he has played with Andrew Tosh, Mad Cobra, Paul Elliott, the Harmonics, and Our Boys Steel Band. RazorBlade’s vocal talent emerged when a group he was playing with heard him chanting to himself during a break in a rehearsal session and handed him the microphone. The procession of words and rhythm that now pierce the rooms at his shows quickly became a regular part of nights at venues such as the Bamboo Hut in San Francisco, the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, and Ashkenaz.