Music review: A woman worth the wait—Joss Stone at the Malasimbo Festival

The last day of the Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival in Puerto Galera was, undeniably, a woman. The moon peeked coyly from a sheath of clouds like a young coquette. The clouds unleashed a rain on the grass, like a skilled seductress landing a thousand kisses on her lover's chest.  Even the performances had a sultry, feminine grace about them, though the scheduled acts were mostly male (though, with female guest singers): ambient soul duo Yolanda Moon, avant-garde electronic musician Similarobjects, and R&B singer-songwriter, Quest. On the whole, the pace was downbeat relative to the strong reggae rhythms and Jimmy Cliff's madman dancing from the night before. But it was no less engaging. Yolanda Moon's dreamy vocals, Similarobject's trippy beats, and Quest's relentless riffs and runs put the crowd in a wanton mood so that even as the music ended and the stage was emptied to make way for that night's headliner, British soul princess Joss Stone, the hip swaying, eye closing, hand holding, and slow dancing went on. When the stage remained empty for over half an hour though, the crowd's good mood began to darken. "Six years she hasn't come up with a good record, and she makes us wait a lifetime to hear her sing," Disgruntled-Blonde-Woman exclaimed. "I would leave if the tickets weren't so damn expensive," Annoyed-Half-naked-Boy said. Even with the best efforts of the optimists in the crowd who thumped-out beats on their bongos and tried to engage everyone in a dance of giant palm leaves, the crowd just became more antsy, and worse, bored. Then, the first sign of action. Somewhere in between people retreating higher up the hillside for more space to lie down and the continued grumbling from those who remained awake, Joss Stone's band finally came on stage. At once, people stirred. They woke their friends up, made their way back down the hill, shook the grass from their legs and backs and stood up to ready themselves for the moment they had been waiting nearly an hour for. Out of the darkness came Stone's disembodied voice. "Can you hear me?" she teased from backstage, eliciting both exhiliration and exasperation from a crowd who could not, and would not, wait a moment longer. Finally, she emerged on stage, all wavy hair, billowy dress and bare feet. The reaction was right out of a classic prom night movie--the one where the guy waits for his date for an eternity only to be stunned silent when she finally descends from her room looking like a dream. Oh, there were ear-splitting cheers, for sure, along with wolf-whistles, and ecstatic exclamations of "Finally!" But for half a breath before that, there was only a dazed silence, and of course, Stone herself. By the time she launched into her opening song, the upbeat "For God's Sake", all was forgiven. "Give more power to the people!" she sang, rousing even more cheers from the audience.  And as she sang "Sugar", "You Had Me", "Jet Lag" and, "Stoned," the good mood that was effortlessly established by the artists who came before was finally restored. Stone's career has been quiet of late. It certainly is not what it was when she first broke out on the scene and sold millions of records worldwide. But there's no denying the soul singer still has it. Her voice was as raw and earthy and Joplin-esque as ever. And yet, her voice alone didn't fuel her performance. Her charm had much, if not more, to do with  making the audience happy. Her laugh was infectious, her smile even more so. It was a smile that had Formerly-Annoyed-Half-naked-Boy looking up at her with dazzled eyes, a smile that had yet another boy smitten. "I feel like I've known her all my life" said his look, never mind that he never even heard of her until before the festival. More than that, though, she spoke to the crowd as if she were talking to a group of longtime friends, not addressing a crowd of fans. For instance, when someone in the audience requested that she sing "Spoiled," she answered, "Really? 'Spoiled'?" and then launched into an explanation of the song's origins. "I wrote it for this guy when I was 17 years old," she said, and of course, the audience cheered. "He was an asshole! I stopped singing it because he was just..pfft!" she continued. But she sang a part of the song anyway—rolling her eyes all the while at the cheesy lyrics, but laughing all the same, perhaps at the irony of it all. The performance was short—she didn't finish the whole song, and at the end half-jokingly said, "We don't need to talk about that anymore." The band didn't even play, though the vocalists chimed in. All in all, it was devoid of a great cathartic climax. And yet the number turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of the night, particularly because of Stone's refreshing candidness And that was the best part of her show, really. The vocals? Yes. Her charm? Of course. But more so the fact that they both felt so real,coming from this woman who didn't seem to be conscious of either self or stage, only of the audience, who she treated like they were her favorite people in the world. At the end of her set, she even gave the crowd some flowers. Her parting words as she did so: "Love music. It shall love you back. Guaranteed." The audience didn't need reminding—they had, after all, waited long, cheered hard, and gone home with flowers in their hands, big smiles on their faces, ears still ringing with the echo of Joss Stone's voice, and happy, happy hearts. — DVM/KG, GMA News The Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival was held in Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro from February 27 to March 2.