It’s not every day that the opportunity comes to sing and dance with a legend, but when Frederick “Toots” Hibbert graced the stage at The Haunt on Tuesday night the audience got to do exactly that.

It’s not every day that the opportunity comes to sing and dance with a legend, but when Frederick “Toots” Hibbert graced the stage at The Haunt on Tuesday night the audience got to do exactly that.

The majority of the crowd turned out early and got treated to a local funk jam band, Turnip Stampede. The band’s mellower funk was a good precursor to the excitement to come, and the quartet was clearly honored to be opening for the reggae legends.

Toots and the Maytals, one of the first reggae bands to come out of Jamaica in the 1960s, is still playing the songs that took them to the top of the reggae world.

The band opened with one of the most recognizable tunes in Toots’ catalogue, the sing-along reggae anthem “Pressure Drop,” which received a massive ovation from the crowd.

Hibbert, adorned in matching pleather and plaid pants and a vest, is still just as energetic a showman as he was during the height of his career. His voice has not lost any of its power, and, though he doesn’t move with the same agility as he did in the past, the 62-year-old can, and still does, dance.

His masterful stage presence got the large Tuesday night crowd moving. The Maytals did not disappoint, sticking mostly to the band’s greatest hits and playing them with as much energy as if it were the first time.

The two keyboardists on stage gave the piano heavy “Funky Kingston” a refreshing twist as Hibbert sounded off chants for the crowd to sing along to, getting the band and audience alike dancing to the legendary song.

A reggae show would not be complete without a shout-out to Jamaica, the island where it all started. Hibbert got an unsurprising lack of response when he asked the Central New York crowd if anyone had been to Jamaica but nonetheless transitioned into his trademark reggae version of John Denver’s “Take me Home, Country Roads,” substituting the lyric “West Virginia” with “West Jamaica.”

Other highlights included classics “Sweet and Dandy,” “Reggae got Soul” and “Bam Bam.” Hibbert even proved his musicianship by playing along with the Maytals on acoustic guitar. The instrument did not prevent the legend from rocking out as hard as he does when singing. He was able to incorporate the guitar into his stage presence, moving the instrument with the beat.

The Maytals were incredibly tight. Two keyboards, bass, drums, electric guitar and two backup vocalists joined Hibbert in recreating his original reggae sound. The band played with a flowing sound that the Maytals are recognized for all over the world.

Marie “Twiggi” Gitten and Hibbert’s daughter, Leba Thomas, sang backup vocals alongside Hibbert. They provided a youthful aspect to the music and danced with Hibbert during the Maytals’ classic “Monkey Man.” It was a great sight seeing father and daughter dance together to a song that is nearly 40 years old.

Since Hibbert has been singing these songs since the ’60s, there was some variety in the way he sang them. On many songs, he differed from the original recordings by breaking down into a gospel-sounding sing along, chanting the songs’ choruses and having the crowd sing back. The band got faster as Hibbert encouraged the audience to dance and sing accordingly.

The best example of this came during the set closer, “54-46.” Hibbert gave the crowd fair warning before the band started playing, saying he would play it differently than he ever had before.

The band started out playing the song traditionally before breaking out into a gospel jam, then transitioning back into the typical-sounding song.

After drawing the song out for nearly 10 minutes, the band left the stage. The Maytals did not answer the crowd’s request for one more song, having nearly exhausted the group’s entire repertoire.

The crowd seemed disappointed with the lack of an encore but had just received a valuable history lesson about Jamaican music by the true originators of ska, roots rock and reggae music.