It was Saturday, April 6th, 2019, the day scheduled for “Live on the Rooftop”, a music show that had Jessica Bongos and Attah Otigba as headliners. I made it to the Silverbird building at about 8:45pm that evening and took an elevator to the 7th floor, the elevator opened into a well-lit hallway, framed in Mahogany walls. I was greeted by a bulky bouncer sporting a black two piece suit, white shirt and no tie. On confirming I was there for the music show, he pointed to a door in the hallway; there, I was greeted by another bouncer, dressed in a similar manner, I noticed as he quickly glanced from my face to my feet — which were housed in a pair of Fóōn Double Monk Strap shoes — trailing his gaze from my pebble grey t shirt, over my black plain trousers, down to my black shoes, a habit he’s probably developed as a polite unobtrusive assessment of guests at this members-only high society location that occasionally opens its doors to the public for events such as this. He welcomed me into a lounge section of Jake’s Club and pointed me in the direction of another doorway that led to an open air rooftop bistro. As I walked across the lounge, lit up a neon blue, with couches and tables lined up on two adjacent sides of the room, one side ahead of me, the other to my right — a jointed glass window running across the entire breadth of the wall, giving a lovely view of the rooftop bristo — I admired the bar to my left, drinks lined up on floating shelves hinged to a white marble wall that was illuminated by lighting behind it, all sitting behind a black bar counter with decorative panels of white light. The empty lounge infused a calming effect that remained as I left it’s vacancy for the busier rooftop, where guests were perched on couches and high seats, around tables and a glass counter at the edge of the roof that overlooked the night.
The show was advertised for 8pm but the intention seemed to be for it to begin by 9, I took a seat by the counter next to a friend at the edge of the rooftop as guests poured in, claiming their seat reservations, waiters and waitresses taking orders, chatter from various corners, and bartenders and mixologists being busy at the outdoor bar which stood opposite the stage. At about 9:15, someone took the stage, I didn’t hear her introduce herself, her voice sounded muffled when she spoke, but as she strummed her guitar and began to sing, even if I couldn’t make out her words, I knew she could sing. She did 3 songs, playing her guitar for the first, a keyboard for the second, and her guitar again for the third. I was unimpressed with the sound quality during her performance, and thought it was pretty out of place for a location with such pristine interior design.
A team of instrumentalists marched onto the stage some ten minutes after the first performer, they planted themselves in positions they could use their instruments. Ope positioned himself to the left of the stage, TJ mounted the keyboard to Ope’s right, positioned in such a manner that his right side faced the audience, Daniel took the drums, and Austin took the bass at the extreme right. Once everyone took their positions, they swiftly began to serenade us with energetic tunes as Ope introduced himself and went on to destroy a slew of melodies on his lead guitar. The sound in the hall was suddenly different, seemed like someone hit the upgrade button and the sound quality matched the top tier musicians and interior where it had found itself, after about 3 minutes doing well received melodious damage to the screams of some people in the audience, Ope introduced Jessica Bongos. Jessica came up, green dress looking like a coat of many colours in the changing stage lights flowing out from LED lightings mounted on the floor, she took centre stage in front of Daniel, and poured her vocals into the microphone as her “Mr. Macho man” followed the current and trickled out of the speakers. Everyone clearly channelled a portion of their attention to the stage. Through the conversations, drinking, and dining, Jessica Bongos’ presence was the most powerful in the room, the sincerity and passion in her vocals cloned her at every table as she connected to her listeners, running us all through different emotions as she peaked at a song that brought tears to her eyes and a round of applause from the crowd. She paused briefly at this point to introduce her band members, and I tried to wrap my head around how Ope had been switching from lead to acoustic guitar through different songs, plucking chords that made me make the face I make when the beat slaps.
I was having so much fun, and I wasn’t alone, it was over 10 minutes past 10 pm, the stage lights sitting on the floor were showing various moods, spinning intermittently, one light sitting over the outdoor bar streamed it’s streak of changing colours across the open air lounge, creating a tightrope of light from the bar to the top of the stage. As Jessica resumed her set, a Strawberry Daiquiri my friend ordered for me was served, I took sips of the pink slushy mixture, enjoyed the music and anticipated Atta Otigba’s set, having only seen him perform when he impressed me at the maiden edition of “Untagged” curated by The Isomers. My daydreaming (technically it was night time though) was truncated by heavy winds that began carrying specs of sand and dust that chased some of us into the enclosed lounge. We continued watching the show through the jointed windows. Jessica kept singing as the wind blew her flowing dress, in the ambience of the stage lights, she looked just like she was a Siren in a painting, and the weather responded to the tempest she summoned with her songs. It didn’t take too long for the show to be called to an abrupt end, as the violent winds chased all the club patrons into the lounge as it threatened to blow away drinks off of tables, speakers off of mounts, and humans off the side of the rooftop. The DJ took over our entertainment the rest of the evening as no one could leave in the storm outside. Free shots of Tequila went round, served in tall tequila glasses, carried on wooden tequila shot boards, an extra testament to the commitment of Jake’s Club to their customer service, and attention to detail.
Other than having the show start an hour later than advertised (which was probably the intention, but should have been communicated properly on the flyers), the questionable sound at the start (that improved so quickly that I wonder if the issue was with the musician’s use of the equipment), and the unexpected rain that cut the show short, everything else was spot on. Top tier musicians, unfaltering service personnel, quality sound, alluring ambience greatly informed by the accurate stage lighting and location décor. Live on the Rooftop definitely, was alive.