Having been born and raised in South Florida I’ve had my fair share of trips to the beach. My trip to South Beach in Miami on Monday for the Zune launch event was one of the better ones ever. I moved to Central Florida almost two years ago now and it’s been that long since I’ve been to the beach or swimming in the ocean. I had almost forgotten how beautiful South Florida really is. The weather was absolutely perfect, the breeze rolling in off the crystal blue waters was refreshing and the sun was shining. I arrived on Ocean Drive at just before noon and the day was already hot as beach balls.

South Beach is a wonderful place with lots of natural beauty from the land to the sea but it’s the people that make it so special. I swear they have signs somewhere that says no ugly people allowed but I never saw them. Everyone on South Beach is beautiful, a model or a producer of some sort. I saw more Usher wannabes and Beyonce knock offs then I normally care for but it was all good to me. The Zune Crew was in full effect and the stage was nearly set when we arrived. It was a great location for what turned out to be an even better show. I think we were all left wanting for a little more music than the one hour show offered but it really was worth the four hour drive.

The goal for me was to enjoy the concert and meet with John Porcaro of the Xbox and Zune marketing team and Godfree and Nano from GamerTag Radio. I exceeded my goals and then some. South Beach is the perfect place for a Zune launch party as the people are friendly and ready to talk about anything. I spent the better part of my day cruising the beach and talking Zune to anyone that would listen. I must have spoken to over 100 people about Zune and not a single one of them had ever heard of it. That’s to be expected but what was surprising was the lack of details provided by Microsoft. With all the preparations being made no one seemed to be getting the message out as well as they could have. Most of the people I spoke with thought Zune was the name of the band, this may seem odd but I was impressed with how well the name stuck with people. Everyone saw it and wanted to know what Zune was but explaining it like 100 times can consume your day.

The concert featured two reggae sensations from South Florida, the Morgan Heritage Music group and Richie Spice. I must admit I spent more time with the crowd during Mr Spices’ set and missed much of his music. It’s standard fair as far as reggae goes but definitely good music. I was most impressed with Morgan Heritage and their fusion of old school roots reggae with a new school rock/punk twist. The group is comprised of five family members with Ms. Una Morgan and Roy "Gramps" Morgan on vocals and keyboards, Lukes Morgan on the guitar, Mr. Mojo Morgan on percussion and Peter Morgan as lead vocals.

These guys are pretty tight and play very well together. You can hear that they have spent a lot of time working together and their music really meshes into a great sounding live group. The crowd at South Beach was feeling things and they really seemed to enjoy the free concert on the beach. I had never had the pleasure to hear these guys before I was introduced to them by Zune but I am sure to remain a fan from now on. Seeing a band or group play live really does make a difference in how you hear their music. When I first heard I was going to be seeing them live I reviewed their music on their website and thought it was very original and well produced but not until I heard them live did I realize just how good these guys are and how well they perform together. Must be something about them being family that makes them so tight but they really are a talented group or musicians.

Honestly most concerts make me realize that music today is far too mechanical and the sounds you hear on an album rarely come from a live band. Not the case with Morgan Heritage, I think these guys sound better live then anything and I was most impressed with how well they played together. They have recently recorded a live album in Amsterdam, called Morgan Heritage Live and you can hear the cities influences in their music. I highly recommend you try out their new live album at the Morgan Heritage Music store right now!

I had the honor of meeting the band and watching a real pro interview them when I sat in on the GamerTagRadio interview by Daniel "Godfree" Pena. I can see that I have a lot to learn about interviewing a musician and I doubt anyone can teach me more about being cool under pressure then Daniel. Watching him interview these guys was awesome and he made it look so easy it was crazy. I was nervous and I was just watching him. Download the Morgan Heritage Music Interview by Daniel from Gamer Tag Radio here. YouTube was down when I posted this so I’ll have to upload the movie later. You can view tons of great photos of the event here and I will be posting more pictures later today.