As soon as they hit the moderately decorated stage, reggae band Rebelution were a dynamic force on stage that never lost focus.

Appearing live at the House of Blues Dallas on February 11, the California-based band put forth a spirited performance with catchy but repetitive songs.

Having been to Jamaica and seen the real-deal reggae before, this was obviously a weak substitute. Honestly, they were about as good as the reggae cover-band on the cruise ship – which isn’t super bad, it’s just that they weren’t the next Bob Marley.

By the end, it was hard to decipher one song from another – they all sounded exactly the same. Individually, each song was pretty good, but by the end, songs started sounding the same, and the audience felt as if they were experiencing déjà vu after hearing something very similar just seconds before.

To give the band some credit, though, they were lively and enthusiastic performers. Each song played was filled with the energy of the band, and it was obvious that the performers truly enjoyed being onstage.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Eric Rachmany was a fairly good singer and put forth a solid performance. The strongest member of the band by far was bass guitarist Marley D. Williams. For an instrumentalist, he had a ton of charisma and personality onstage, and played some impressive tunes. The other capable performer was drummer Wesley Finley.

Beyond the performance, there were some issues with the venue. House of Blues, yes, this is about you. Concerts should be fun, and there is no issue with people letting loose, but it does come to a point where the staff needs to step in and have more enforcement over the crowd, such as when some drunk tries to use a lighter but almost ends up lighting your friends hair on fire.

So the only serious complaint about the concert is that HOB needs to be stricter regarding security and safety and keeping the drunken morons out of the venue. It just makes the concert safer and more enjoyable for everyone.

Management issues at the venue aside, at the end, the crowd was delighted with the band’s performance, begging for and receiving an encore from the enthusiastic band.