Luciano @ Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY 4/19/26

 

Bill: Luciano/Mesha Steele/DJ Roy

Venue: Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., New York, NY

Date: Sunday 4/19/26

Door: $69 (had friends +1)

9pm Luciano

Active: 1993 (Davyton, Jamaica)

Latest Release: Return of the Chronicles (Island, 2022), The Answer (Oneness, 2020)

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It was a long running legend in the mind of a friend that brought me to Jamaican Reggae Roots artist Luciano AKA Luciano Messenjah.  He won tickets and Luciano had been on the bucket list for him since the late 90's.  The story goes that he saw Sizzla in Los Angeles and was raving about it to a friend of his who said to him "you think he is good, you should see Luciano he is better."  I may be paraphrasing a bit but you get the idea.  So my concert buddy had an itch to scratch going back decades.  As for me, I figured anyone ever on RAS Records or VP Records doing Roots Reggae is someone worth checking out, so after my own practice, I jumped on the L train, killed an hour at mainstay across the street, The Peculiar Pub and met up right before 9. I was a bit oblivious of his history, releases on Island Records, his Grammy nominations, a Sly & Robbie production and so forth.  

While I was waiting in line, Luciano walked up to the venue and shook th

e hands of the late stragglers in line like me that missed opener Mesha Steele.  He clearly has fans, the night was packed out but we made it to the front left stage right without much problem.  This was nearly a $70 ticket and as a highly regarded singer (ranked in 2023 by Rolling Stone as the the 143rd greatest all time singer) he clearly had fans to pay it.  Unfortunately, the cell phones were hardcore today making getting "clean" 30 second clips without someones phone in the way was impossible.  Dems the breaks.  

Luciano's biggest songs were in the mid-90's around the time of his initial breakout.  "Where There Is Life", "It's Me Again Jah" and "Who Could It Be?" are his big hits.  He did "Good God" with a refrain from Wings "Let 'Em In." His setup has two female vocalists on stage left, the drummer in the middle and the band on stage right.  Luciano mostly sticks near the ladies to sing.  They had a great "oh-oh-oh" refrain I got a clip of.  I have to figure out that song title.