“Toots” Hibbert brought his legendary and still unique reggae, ska, funky, rockin’ soul stew to a soupy and humid night at the Surf Club on Friday night.

What do you reckon you'll be doing when you're 64?

In keeping with tradition of previous stops at the Surf Club in recent years, Toots And The Maytals packed in a crowd for a typically late starting set, starting after 11:00, and kept the booties moving and grooving for a solid 2+ hours until closing. The late start builds up the anticipation and when they hit the stage, you can help but think the guy should have his own work out tape because he’s 64 and just… doesn’t … stop.

Toots is known primarily as the artist responsible for naming reggae (with his 1968 song “Do The Reggay”), according to The Decider, who wisely picked Toots NYC appearance as a to-do for tonight. His songs have been covered by the Clash and Amy Winehouse, and, as Wikipedia tells us, he was immortalized in the Bob Marley song “Punky Reggae Party”.

Interesting that Wikipedia also mentions an Otis Redding comparison, because during one of the many soul rave-ups that were tacked on to the end of the jams the band played, I was feeling Toots channel his inner 1967 Otis or Ike and Tina Turner.

I did much prefer the groovy skankin’ ska and chilled out reggae tunes with Toots on the acoustic, but you have to hand it to his band just for being able to keep up. The moment they’d finally lull the crowd into a groove and the room would seemingly be swaying in unison, Toots would give the sign and BAM!!! shift gears into a double time hyperdrive and suddenly the room would be jumping and bouncing in total mayhem.

Hope we get the Toots back again next summer. Can I write Toots one more time before I finish this post? TOOTS!