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# Marley magic combusts in Santa Monica
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/marley-magic-combusts-in-santa-monica/
- Published: 2005-05-20T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:11:09.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By KURT HEIM Special to the Daily Press*

The Temple Bar in Santa Monica played host to two members of the reggae’s first family, Stephen Marley and Damian Marley on May 12\. Playing to a sold out crowd, Stephen and Damian turned the Temple Bar into a frenzied mass of Rasta love.

Stephen and Damian visited Temple Bar as part of their national “Welcome to Jamrock Tour.” Opening the show was Stephen, whose resemblance to his father is uncanny. He emanated with a sound that was a realization of his powers — and his legacy. With the legend himself now a memory in all of our hearts, the next best thing — his son.

Stephen threw in a few of his father’s well known numbers — closing your eyes it could’ve been Bob Marley himself singing. Stephen’s own numbers were soulful, with hip hop beats, smoky bass and winding keyboard runs.

Headlining was the young lion dubbed as “Jr. Gong,” Damian Marley. With the temperature inside the Temple Bar at 100 degrees and the audience about to spontaneously combust, Damian delivered his own special blend of Marley magic. He started off with his own rendition of “Sun is Shining” and quickly moved into his own stylistically booty shaking, dance hall ragga. Using the same core band as his brother, they effortlessly bust out the fattest, grooviest dance hall ragga heard to date.

The highlight of the evening was his version of Bob Marley’s “Exodus.” They started off the song with a sample from the original track and then broke into a twisted blaze of ragga dance hall abandon. The band would then seamlessly return back to the original as if to give the crowd a breather.

Damian then cooled the tempo and slowed it down to actually give the audience a message — that health is important with lyrics like “live on fruit and fiber like long life survivors.” Was Jr. Gong preaching goodwill and health to his audience?

The encore was well received after the crowd had been chanting “Marley, Marley” for five minutes. This saw the return of Damian and Stephen to perform a duet of one of the greatest reggae’s songs of all time, “Is This Love.”

These two brothers rocked the Temple Bar in a Rasta love way that only they as sons of a legend could do. It was like seeing jazz played by the greats, only this time it was reggae played by royalty.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 20, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052005.pdf?ref=smdp.com)