TIMELESS NYC 2013: KES The Band & Maxi Priest at Stage 48
On March 31, 2013, Julianspromos documented TIMELESS, a live Caribbean concert at Stage 48 in Manhattan, New York, bringing together Soca powerhouse KES The Band and international Reggae icon Maxi Priest.
Presented by Big & Strong and Tryst Experience, the Easter Sunday concert was designed as a meeting of generations and genres, pairing Maxi Priest’s Reggae and Lovers Rock catalogue with the contemporary Soca sound and live energy of KES.
The original Julianspromos footage preserves highlights from both headline performances, capturing a packed New York audience as Reggae and Soca shared the same stage in Midtown Manhattan.
TIMELESS at Stage 48
TIMELESS took place on Sunday, March 31, 2013 at Stage 48, located at 605 West 48th Street in Manhattan.
The venue itself was relatively new. Stage 48 had opened at the beginning of 2013, making TIMELESS one of the Caribbean concerts arriving during the club’s first months of operation.
Promoters Big & Strong and Tryst Experience presented the show around a simple concept: combine two performers whose music represented different eras and sides of Caribbean music.
Maxi Priest brought decades of Reggae, Lovers Rock, R&B and Pop crossover history.
KES represented the evolving Soca sound of the early 2010s.
Maxi Priest Opens the Live Show
Maxi Priest opened the main concert shortly after 9:30 p.m.
Backed by a full live band, the British-Jamaican Reggae singer moved through a catalogue that had made him one of the most internationally successful Caribbean vocalists of his generation.
His Stage 48 performance included songs such as “Wild World,” “House Call” and “Close to You.”
“Close to You” had become an international Pop breakthrough for Maxi, reaching audiences far beyond the traditional Reggae market while retaining the Caribbean identity that defined his music.
More than two decades after those recordings first became hits, the New York audience was still singing along.
Red Fox Joins Maxi Priest
The Maxi Priest portion of the concert also included a special appearance from Red Fox.
The Jamaican-born, Brooklyn-connected Dancehall artist joined Maxi for a duet before moving into his own classic “Bashment Party.”
Beniton The Menace also appeared during Maxi’s set, helping add another New York Dancehall connection to the performance.
The guest appearances expanded TIMELESS beyond the two names on the headline.
The concert increasingly became a celebration of the wider Caribbean music network surrounding Reggae, Dancehall and Soca in New York.
GBM Nutron Between the Bands
During the transition between Maxi Priest and KES, Nutron, later widely known as GBM Nutron, performed for the Stage 48 audience.
His appearance came during the same period when GBM Productions was becoming increasingly visible within Soca through songwriting and production work connecting New York and Trinidad and Tobago.
That made his inclusion particularly fitting.
TIMELESS was taking place in Manhattan, but much of the music represented onstage moved continuously between New York, Trinidad, Jamaica and the broader Caribbean diaspora.
KES The Band Takes Over Stage 48
The second half of the concert belonged to KES The Band.
When frontman Kees Dieffenthaller and the band took the stage, contemporary coverage described the dance floor filling quickly as hands and Caribbean flags went into the air.
KES moved through songs representing different stages of the band’s development, including “Wotless,” “Where Yuh From” and “Ah Ting.”
The set also showcased newer material from the period, including “Rum and Soca” and “Tuesday on the Rocks.”
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“Tuesday on the Rocks”
“Tuesday on the Rocks” represented an important part of KES’ evolving musical direction.
While firmly connected to Caribbean music, the song reflected the band’s willingness to move between Soca, Reggae, Pop, Rock and other influences without treating those genres as rigid boundaries.
That approach was central to the TIMELESS concept.
KES was not simply being presented as the younger Soca act following a veteran Reggae performer.
Both KES and Maxi Priest represented artists whose careers had depended on moving Caribbean music across genre lines.
From “Wotless” to a Wider Sound
By 2013, “Wotless” had already become one of KES’ defining records.
The song had helped propel the band through the 2011 Trinidad Carnival season and expand its profile throughout the international Soca market.
TIMELESS allowed New York audiences to hear those established Carnival favorites alongside newer music that pointed toward the band’s increasingly broad Caribbean-Pop identity.
Contemporary reviews described KES moving from Groovy Soca into faster material, Reggae-influenced songs and even classic Soca and Calypso covers during an extended set lasting well over an hour.
Reggae and Soca in One Concert
The pairing of Maxi Priest and KES was the central idea behind TIMELESS.
Maxi represented an artist whose career had demonstrated how Reggae and Caribbean music could cross into international Pop without losing their identity.
KES represented another generation attempting to push Soca and Caribbean music toward audiences outside its traditional Carnival markets.
The two artists approached that goal from different periods and musical backgrounds.
Putting them together on the same bill allowed audiences to hear how those Caribbean traditions could exist alongside each other rather than being separated into genre-specific concerts.
A Packed Stage 48
Contemporary reporting described Stage 48 as filled to capacity for TIMELESS, despite rainy New York weather that Easter Sunday.
Patrons had begun gathering hours before the main performances.
Music from DJ Callie B and DJ Kevin Crown carried the event through the afternoon and evening, mixing Soca, Reggae, Dancehall, Hip-Hop and Pop before and between the live acts.
The result was not simply a concert with two isolated performances.
TIMELESS functioned as an extended Caribbean music experience built around DJs, live bands, headline artists and special guests.
A New Manhattan Caribbean Venue
Stage 48 added another interesting element to the event.
Located in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, the venue had only recently opened and was designed as a multi-level concert and nightlife space.
TIMELESS therefore brought a major Caribbean production into a new Manhattan venue during its first year.
That reflected a broader trend visible throughout Julianspromos’ archive during the period.
Caribbean concerts were increasingly appearing not only in traditional community venues but also at locations such as Madison Square Garden, Best Buy Theater, Barclays Center, Jones Beach and Stage 48.
Julianspromos Documents TIMELESS
By March 2013, Julianspromos had developed considerably from the platform that had begun conducting its first interviews only two years earlier.
The original TIMELESS video reflects that growth.
Instead of preserving only a single artist interview or isolated performance, the footage documents highlights from a professionally promoted Manhattan concert featuring two internationally established Caribbean acts.
That expanding scope was becoming increasingly characteristic of Julianspromos.
The platform was documenting Soca artists, Reggae performers, festivals, Carnival events, nightlife and live concerts across a growing range of venues and markets.
A Concert Built Around Longevity
The name TIMELESS ultimately captured what connected Maxi Priest and KES.
Maxi Priest represented a Caribbean catalogue that had survived changing generations and musical trends.
KES represented newer Caribbean music already demonstrating the ability to travel beyond the traditional boundaries of Soca.
Promoters described the event as a musical experience intended to cross genres and eras, with full live bands forming a central part of the presentation.
The surviving Julianspromos footage preserves that idea in motion.
From the Julianspromos Archives
TIMELESS NYC 2013: KES The Band & Maxi Priest at Stage 48 preserves a memorable meeting between Soca and Reggae in Manhattan.
Featuring Maxi Priest and KES The Band, with appearances from Red Fox, Beniton The Menace and Nutron, the concert brought different generations of Caribbean music together before a packed Stage 48 audience.
For Julianspromos, the footage captures another point in the platform’s expanding live-event history during the early 2010s.
More than a decade later, TIMELESS remains exactly what its name suggested: a snapshot of Caribbean artists whose music continued connecting generations, genres and audiences far beyond the islands where those sounds began.
