After being upstaged by his opening act Donavon Frankenreiter three years ago, when he last headlined Pacific Amphitheatre, Ziggy Marley made sure to bring his A-game to the Costa Mesa venue Friday night — and the packed crowd was more than ready for a strong return, welcoming him by waving their beers up high.

The older-skewing audience, plus an utter lack of kids (at least in my general vicinity), may have been why Marley chose to leave out tunes from his latest endeavor, last year’s children’s album Family Time. (It has been four years since his last proper album, 2006’s Love Is My Religion.)

Following a pleasant set from long-running local reggae group Common Sense, the 41-year-old Marley took the stage amid a rainbow haze. (Literally, that is: rainbow-colored lights shone down on a mist of white smoke – deliberate or audience-created, I couldn’t tell.)

It didn’t take long for Ziggy, the eldest of Bob Marley’s children, to dip into his father’s songbook with “War” about 20 minutes into his set. Sure, Ziggy’s got some good stuff of his own; the groovy “Look Who’s Dancing” was a fun, fine way to close out the night. All the same, it still seems that he runs on the fumes of his father’s legacy.

Granted, it’s probably not fair to say that, considering virtually all reggae artists are forever held to Bob’s paradigm for comparison. But since Ziggy comes from such a hallowed lineage, high expectations and judgments are completely inevitable.

Thankfully, he’s still got the goods — his voice is eerily similar to Bob’s and he appears to sincerely believe in the same peace-and-love mantras. His dreadlocks are even more intense than his father’s. I’ve never seen ones so long; he’s like some sort of Rasta Rapunzel.

His own cuts, however, are just never as meaty as his father’s, and naturally the tunes that got the crowd most worked up were old classics like “Is This Love?” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” It’s probably unfulfilling to live in such an overpowering shadow and play to audiences that will always be more excited for someone else’s songs. Still, if you’re going to frequently cull from such a beloved repertoire – the ratio here was about one Bob song to every three Ziggys — at least make sure your own work is just as memorable.

Not that Ziggy didn’t put on a solid show — even the elderly, well-coiffed woman behind me got up and danced, albeit in the most stately, dignified manner possible. And Ziggy’s tight backing band zipped through these songs like old pros: the guitars sounded almost bluesy, particularly during “I Shot the Sheriff,” and had the faintest touch of disco during “True to Myself.”

Yet, like everything else about Ziggy, this show was merely agreeable and entertaining — by no means the stuff of legend.

SOURCE: Orange Country Register