Concert Critique

[Salinye]

I thought it might be nice to have a thread for critiquing concerts we've attended! Always nice to know who puts on a good show, and who sounds horrible in person! I just went to a Weird Al Yankovich concert, and to be honest, I've never had so much fun at a show. I can't wait to critique it for you, but I'm too tired atm. I'll do so tomorrow!

 

Feel free to add your concert critiques to this thread. :0)

 

~Salinye

[Wyvern]

Hmmm... I actually started a thread on this very subject a little while ago, and though it didn't get any responses, I did post my thoughts on an interesting concert I was at there. You can read my thoughts on Blueprint and Illogic's performances in Campbell here. :-)

[Salinye]

OHH I will go read! Also, I WILL post my opinion on the Weird Al concert, as soon as I get a breathing moment again!!!!

 

~Salinye

[Peredhil]

The last concert I saw was in California. We were on blankets, on a hillside opposite the stage. Monteray area I believe. I'm trying to remember the year - sometime between 1989 and 1992. Jimmy Buffet was on his Shark tour, and gave a strong performance, great audience involvement. He was followed by the Grateful Dead - and though Jerry Garcia was near the year of his death, the GD gave an wonderful performance, more of a jam than anything, moving fluidly from song to song and occasionally interweaving and interleaving songs together. The played about two hours past when they were supposed to be finished, with a given reason that they knew many of the audience were military. The only other performer I've seen who gave that level of performance for that reason was Bruce Springstein, in Germany, when he sang until he was so hoarse, he couldn't sing any more - and then ended the umpteenth encore with a blistering guitar instrumental.

 

The next-to-last concert I saw was the Moody Blues, in 1981...

It was beyond words for me, because the MB's music resonates on so many levels beyond music in my life.

Concert was in Moscow Idaho to a not-so-large crowd, somewhat of a "lay-over" tour between big cities. It was funny - all of them sauntered out, dressed casually in t-shirts and blue jeans, except the newcomer replacing Mike Pinder, Patrick Morez, who was dressed in traditional "rock star" clothing. Nothing really to look out, but when the music began, the listeners rediscovered that looks truly don't matter to this type of rock-n-roll.

To be able to sing like Justin Hayward...

 

There were others before that, but the most memorable was a triple concert in 1982 in Knoxville Tennessee, which had a throw-away group named Axe opening, followed by a new-comer named Joan Jett, who gave the best performance of the evening. The final act was Cheap Trick - and they were absolutely horrible, so high on cocaine they could barely get through the songs.

[The Portrait of Zool]

I went to see Dave Matthews about a month ago. It was pretty good.

 

The last concert I went to before that - other than club gigs - was Phil Collins 'No Jacket Required' concert sometime in the late 80's.

 

Anyway, like I was saying, I hadn't been to a concert in quite a while, so it was a bit of a shock when I went to get a beer and was informed that I first had to register at the police tent. This was a large outdoor amphitheater, though the accomodations were pretty nice. Now, certainly I can understand being careful with the alcohol at a concert, it is mostly younger people that go - but when you're 40 and over, you think they might cut you a little slack. No dice, you had to present ID to the authorities and be issued an armband that said it was okay for you to have alcohol.

 

I took a look at the gigantic line at the police tent, and decided water was fine.

 

Anyway, Dave Matthews was great. That guy is a great musician and a pretty good showman. He played all his good songs, and in the middle performed a spectacular 20 minute rendition of 'Jimmy thing' that was positively cosmic!

 

At another point, he played an instrumental that segued into a foot stomping scat session, then wowed everyone with a wonderful blues guitar solo.

 

Each member of his band took their turn at a solo, and they are all very good. I can see why it is that Dave has enjoyed such success.

 

The only things I could complain about was the quasi martial atmosphere (not the bands fault) and that the amplifiers for the bass drum ran out of gas pretty quick durring an extended bass drum roll - but nothing that didn't make the price of this concert (I got the tickets for free! WELL worth what I paid.

[Wyvern]

I went to see Breeze Evahflowin, Poison Pen, and Immortal Technique at Ben N Moes in Washington D.C this evening.

 

Before I describe the events of the concert, a funny incident occured when I was searching for the small cafe where the artists were hosted. I arrived there way too early, since it ended up being only a twenty minute walk from my dorm, and I mistook the club nextdoor to Ben N Moes for the locale. When I asked them if they were selling tickets yet, they responded "yes, but remember it's only for gay men." Confused, I asked them if they had a concert going on this evening, and they said something the lines of "yes, it's Spank night." I was actually beginning to believe that the concert was only open to gay men, until I asked about the hip hop artists and they pointed me towards the correct concert hall. ;p

 

After waiting in the cold and then in the front row of the small cafe where it took place for a while, the artists came on in order. There was a short warmup act known as Flex Matthews who was pretty good, and then Breeze Evahflowin was the first of the lineup to take the stage. He delivered some excellent performances, and definitely struck me as a very hungry and talented M.C, which was expected given the material I had heard from him previously.

 

Poison Pen was the next rapper to come on, and he had an enormous amount of stage presence due to his being physically huge and extremely rowdy. While he had a great personality and a funny set, I didn't like him quite as much as Breeze due to his being completely smashed off of liquor through his entire performance. Never the less, his set was good, and he performed my favorite of his songs "Top of the Food Chain," which I was happy about.

 

Finally, Immortal Technique came on. I had heard very good things about him before, but hadn't heard too much of his material previously. All I can say is WOW. I had entered the concert deciding I wouldn't buy anything, but ended up buying his CD "Revolutionary vol. 2" shortly after his set. He's an incredible lyricist, and possibly one of the finest M.Cs currently spitting in hip hop. To give you an idea of where he's coming from, he opened his performance with an acapella version of the track "The 4th Branch," which begins:

 

"The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish

A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist

Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond

And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran

They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam

When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran

This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings

Cus Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings"

 

I'll definitely be on the lookout for more things from Immortal Technique in the future... as it stands he was clearly the highlight of the evening. It was worth the eight buck entry fee just to see him alone.

 

So, has anyone else been to any good concerts lately?

[Loki Wyrd]

The last real concert I want to was a few months back - Bruce Springsteen in Detroit. They put on a pretty good show. Be amazed by my lack of detail.

[X-Sabre]

The last concert I saw was Keller Williams on Oct 15th 2003. It was in a small venue in Pittsburgh, PA *although it wasn't at the original venue. It was moved 2 days before the show due to the original venue being sold* I had anticipated seeing him at one place, but was quite surprised with the change in location. It was much easier to get to, and much more adequate for a concert this size.

 

For those of you who don't know Keller Williams, he's a one man band, and I mean that literally. At any given moment on stage, there are at least 12 guitars all tuned differently, a few different types of drums, a keyboard, a few synth type things that I don't know the name for, and another vast majority of odd instruments, ranging anywhere from a piano, to a kazoo.

 

The show started a bit late, there was a lot of confusion getting inside the place. The lights turned down low, except for the light show above the stage, and Keller walks out onto the stage, goofy as ever I might ad. Forgive me for not remembering the exact set list, it's quite hard to distinguish breaks in songs.

 

Keller, being a one man band, uses a lot of loops to create his music, and it's hard to distinguish where one loop is going to go while he is recording it. Each song flowed virtually seamlessly into the next song, it was one huge jam with a few breaks to record new loops. Watching Keller cover Low Rider, doing all kinds of crazy antics during it, such as pretending to be cruising in his car, slumped down a bit with his arm out of the window. It really fit in well, and gives you the visual experience of a great song. Later into the jam, he broke into his It's A Plant song, which is a song in support of marijuana *although I use it, I do not condone it's use for newcomers* Watching him pretend that his kazoo was a pipe is just another example of his crazy antics on stage. Goofy dances that went out of style 10 years ago, overall just absolute craziness.

 

All in all, the 2 sets provided me with a good 3 hours of outstanding music, aside from the jovial antics of Keller on stage. It was an amazing time where I found myself lost in the music more often than not.

 

I suggest that if you're into progressive bluegrass, goofy onstage antics, or even just an appreciation for overall uplifting music, I strongly recommend seeing Keller live. Until you can see his skill on the guitar and other instruments, you won't understand the complexity that goes into his recordings. It might just sound like odd music, but broken down, it's simply an amazing feat.

[lumpenproletariat]

well, after so much urging, I'll finally post

 

I recently (jan 16) went to a huge festival which had about 60 bands performing across various stages, called "The Big Day Out" ( http://www.bigdayout.com ) Featuring acts like the strokes (whom I missed somehwhat intentionally), Muse, Metallica, Aesop Rock & Mr Lif, Flaming Lips, and some New Zealand bands like The Mint Chicks, Fur Patrol and The Datsuns.

 

Everyband I saw was great, particularly metallica. Photos I took after getting out of the metallica moshpit can be found http://frostar.orcon.net.nz/images/ here. nb: the first three are aforementioned photos of the band "The Datsuns". All the rest are metallica.

 

I intend to see Metallica in the future whenever I can, based on the fact their shows are amasing ;p

[Beautiful Nightmare]

Ummmm the last concert i went to see was Metallica and Linkin Park and The Darkness were there too! They all put on a really good perfomance and Metallica especially kicked ass!!!!! There was fireworks and fire and that began at the song blackened if any of you know the song!

Anyway it was such a cool concert oooo and the lead singer from Linkin Park(Chester Bennington) Waved at me because i was up on my really tall friends shoulders standing so i was above everyone else and he waved!! I was in shock for several days after saying to myself "OH MY GOD HE WAVED TO ME!! TO ME AAAH!" Hehehehe!! Anyways i just thought i would add this because im going to see them again in june and i cannot wait!!

[dragonqueen]

I just saw Lost and Found, a Christian rock band, at my church. It was pretty cool. The guys in the band are really funny. The songs have a lot of meaning, and everything was a bit more personal, since there was a smaller crowd. They were taking requests and stuff, and all in all it was a pretty good concert.

[lumpenproletariat]

!!!

RJD2 is playing here on april 3

 

I'm debating taking my camera, whether I do or not it'll still be awesome concert. Will post a review when I'm back

[The Portrait of Zool]

Hm, forgot about this thread, but I feel like posting - and BTW, Wyvern's story from his first post is HILARIOUS!

 

I did go to a concert last summer, which was a fundraiser in Sonoma. Headlining was The Doobie Brothers, but there were also a bunch of spot appearences by other names - The Turtles (which was actually pretty entertaining), Joe Satriani (who rocked, of course), and *gulp* a surprise appearence by Jackson Brown, which was positively stellar!! What a touching and talented performer. Eerily, he looked EXACTLY the same as his pictures from the 70's - he even wore the same tranplanted faded black t-shirt and blue jeans. The power of his voice and music was the same too.

 

Of course, the highlight of the evening was the Doobie Brothers. Those guys are GREAT! There is an energy in their live performances which is a whole nother level over the recorded songs, which are also great!. They really are a very talented group.

 

Because the concert was in Sonoma, I was soooo happy to be able to get a decent glass of beer! They also had oysters on the half shell, an olive and cheese bar, a salad bar, a wine bar, plus the more mainstream fare of sandwiches and burgers.

 

Great food, great music, great drink - life is good.

 

Anyway, for some reason while reading this I am reminded of a concert I went to a long time ago, and am thinking of one I will pseudo-attend in the near future.

 

The long ago concert was back in... '88, '89? It was The Spinners headlining, along with a couple of other 60's - 70's bands. At first I thought, "Oh great, another geriatric 'will work for oxygen' tour," but then I saws that the tickets were really inexpensive, like $20, and I wasn't doing anything else, and also going to be there was Three Dog Night - I always LOVED Three Dog Night - so my wife and I wound up going.

 

It was an outdoor affair that was basically set up at a rodeo rink. Smallish crowd, and being this was in southern California the evening was warm and comfortable.

 

To make a medium story less medium, the headlining band was fairly awful. When the headlining band came on, we left, but that was because the first band up was Three Dog Night and they ROCKED! Their performance was electric, and they played all their really great songs! Jeremiah was a Bullfrog, Just an old Fashioned Love Song, One, Shambala... I could go on and on. They played for almost an hour and a half, which isn't bad for a multi-attraction event. You could just tell that they loved to perform, and they were good at what they did besides. So that was cool. I'll always be glad I got to see Three Dog Night.

 

So anyway, on to the future concert. Being raised in the 80's, I will always revere - Prince! That's right, I love the music of the Purple One, and have always wanted to catch one of his live shows. Well, I still can't do that, but he is trying something fairly new by kicking off the relaease of his new CD with a concert in L.A., and simulcasting it around the country to 40 other theatres.

 

For those not in the know, the whole 'Prince changes his name yet agian' thing was because of a contract dispute with his record company. He wanted more control as an artist, both creatively and financially, and has struggled as a true independent to make it in music OUTSIDE the industry. To this end Prince fled corporate distribution and sells CDs direct from his website. Read all about the issues here: Musician's Rights

 

So what Prince is doing is pretty experimental in support of artist's rights, and I support that, so I am going to catch one of his simulcast concerts in a local theatre. The price is pretty reasonable, and you even get a free copy of his new CD. If you are interested, check this out: Prince simulcast concerts

 

I'll let you know all about it.

[lumpenproletariat]

Joe Satriani (who rocked, of course)

*drools*

 

he's never come here =(

[Orlan]

Well it was April 1st yesterday and as a birthday present for the near and dear woman in my life she and I went to see Rockapella in concert. What is Rockapella you ask? Well I'm glad you asked. Rockapella is a group of 5 men who make music without the aid of any other instrument but thier voices. This is a capella.

 

I've loved a capella for a long time, unplugged goes alot with a capella in my likes too. You can mix anything to make it sound good, but if you can makes things sound good without any aid then I have a great respect for you. Rockapella is alot like a cover band, but it's also different. Yes they do covers of songs but they do the same song without any instruments.

 

The firts song they did was House of the Rising Sun. 5 men. One Base, three melody and then the last guy, a human drum machine. I've heard beatboxers and the like but they had nothing on the human drum machine. He made things (other than spit) come out of his mouth that shocked and amaze everyone.

 

They did an original song next then a few mroe covers, then they talked about doing the song they were most famous for and suddenly the world wanted some coffee. They then took a woman up on stage and serenaded her with My Girl and Pretty Woman.

 

Then we got Papa was a Rolling Stone from the bass and then truly the greatest song of Rockapella history, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

 

First rule in concerts, if the house lights don't go up, another encore is coming out. They came back out once and sang Shambala, a great song, and then did one more then left again. The second encore they sang to a young lady who flew in from Geramany. This time though they sang without any mics and it was neat to listen to everyone stay silent and strain to hear the music. They then ended with a great song Blah, Blah, Blah.

 

Overall, it was a good concert, I was pleased with it. When you have no physical instruments it's hard to make showmanship, but they did. I liked it, it was a little empty in the seats though, but to be fair the great Van Morrison had a concert the same night so I'm sure Rockapella lost some people to that

[purple_shadows]

Lets see....last concert I went to was October 189th to see AFI with Auto Pilot OFF Poison the Well. I really liked Auto Pilot Off and AFI, but poison the well kinda sucked. Couldn't understand them at all, all they did was run around and scream and stuff, and it was really boring. maybe if I knew who they were beforehand it would have been better, but all I knew was this one line my ex used to yell at me when he was really pissed off and we were fighting and stuff. Anyways...

Auto Pilot off was great, kinda had a Dashboard confessionals feel too them. I met them on the street after the show and they signed my ticket and were really sweet sweet guys.

AFI was freaking amazing. Wow. they know how to put on a show and you can really tell just how much their fans love them. they are really down to earth guys, and had the crowd vote on a song or two. They involve the audience and are just great to watch, when you can see them (i was in the nose bleed of the nose bleed section). It was an awesome experience.

[Wyvern]

I went to see Dujeous, Roosevelt Franklin, and Asheru of the Unspoken Heard last night in concert.

 

Before describing the concert, I should note that the event was announced the night before due to some confusion amongst promoters and show bookings, and that I had been DJing with the hip hop department all day as a memorial for a fellow DJ who passed away last week. The lineup for the concert had Asheru listed as the headliner act, with only a small line for "Dujeous/Roosevelt Franklin"... which I find rather strange since I think the latter two host much better live shows. Asheru is a local act, which may account for the placement and popularity.

 

I arrived at the venue, the Black Cat, very early as usual in order to make sure I could get a ticket, buy any interesting CDs on sale, and take the front row of the audience. When I ordered a ticket, the person in charge of searching IDs actually recognized my voice as that of the DJ that hosts "Any. Given. Moment," which genuinely shocked me and gave me a pleasant surprise! I chatted with him about various hip hop things until the doors to the concert opened, and which point I entered.

 

Before the show started, I went to the CD merchandise counter and met Apex and Mojo of Dujeous, as well as Kimani Rogers of Roosevelt Franklin, all of whom I recognized. I explained to them that I was a D.J at WRGW and a big fan of their music, and got a few promos from them for my station. Apex also took down my e-mail address and phone number for any future hook ups, and when I asked Kimani if he'd be down for a radio interview at some point, he responded with an affirmative. Expect a very special guest caller on the "Any. Given. Moment." episode dealing with the record label Third Earth... I have yet to decide on the date. ;-)

 

The first act that opened the show was a lesser known group called R.P.M Band, who were quite good. They were a live band with an M.C rapping on vocals and different people playing different instruments, with no DJ equipment involved apart from a little scratching. They played one really excellent and memorable song about a broken relationship, and I might be checking for their material in the future.

 

The next act to come on stage was Roosevelt Franklin... good ol' Kimani, he's a really funny and down-to-earth guy. His set was introduced by the D.J throwing on this bizarre pop melody from one of those old "coming of age" shows, and he just walked on stage and sort of stood around for a bit, shrugging and nodding to people while sipping from a drink. Then, he very hesitantly approached the microphone and shyly spoke into it "This is just my life... my dream," at which point his set started. His set was good, though it was very short and the D.J messed up a few times. One of the highlights of it was when he told the story of how he found out about this show last night and how he had no time to rehearse it in a mumbling voice.

 

After Kimani was finished, Dujeous took the stage. As I predicted upon purchasing my ticket, they stole the show and put on the best set that evening. Dujeous is, in my opinion, the best live band in hip hop... they have musicians on bass, drums, guitar, trumpet, and keyboards that compliment the styles of the three talented M.Cs (Mas D, Mojo, and Rheturik) perfectly. Even more impressive to me was the amount of unity that the three M.Cs displayed, as the way they traded verses effortlessly really showed that they've been perfecting their chemistry for many, many years. They played many excellent tracks, and had a huge deal of energy on stage (while one M.C would be rapping, the others would often dance). Highlights included a solo performance from the guy on trumpet at the end of one of their best tracks "Spilt Milk," and a Reggae-inspired verse from Mas D on their song "Good Green."

 

Finally, after Dujeous had finished, Asheru came out to perform... He was alright, but nothing special when compared to previous acts. He had a projector that showed various images over the course of his set, which was interesting, but he didn't really catch my attention that much. He's certainly a good M.C, but just wasn't impressive after the enormous amount of energy and musicianship that Dujeous had displayed. I ended up leaving about 30 minutes into his set since my energy was spent and I was a little bored...

 

Overall, it was definitely worth the eight bucks it took to get in.. for hooking up with Dujeous and Kimani, if nothing else!

[Wyvern]

Last Sunday, I got to see the Quannum Spectrum (D.J Shadow, Blackalicious, Latyrx, Lifesavas, Joyo Valarde, and D.J D-Sharp) perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C.

 

I didn't get to chat with the artists beforehand this time around since the 9:30 Club was already packed by the time I got there, but I fortunatly still managed to make my way to the front row of the crowd before the show started. D.J D-Sharp spun records and scratched before the rest of the artists came out to start things off. He was very energetic and skilled on the turntables, which made for a very entertaining introduction to the show.

 

After D.J D-Sharp finished his set and the crowd was hyped for Quannum, D.J Shadow and Chief Xcel of Blackalicious came out and took their positions at two seperate turntables while D-Sharp remained at a third one. The three D.Js were out at all times and alternated in scratching over the course of the sets, which was a very good set up as it created a certain fluidity between acts.

 

The rest of the Quannum crew then came on stage, and all of them put on excellent performances. The M.Cs did both solo tracks and group tracks with each other, and were consistantly great throughout the three hours they performed. A few highlights include a very short but very impressive D.J Shadow solo set in which he performed a live version of his famous track "Organ Donor," a performance by Latyrx of their amazing funk track "Lady Don't Tek No" which showed what Lyrics Born and Lateef the Truthspeaker are capable of live, and Vursatyl of the Lifesavas performance of the track "HelloHiHey" in which he conversed with himself through a video of his rapping parts of the track. The crowd was also one of the livest crowds I've ever been a part of, and really impressed Quannum with their cheering...

 

One very interesting thing that was used in the concert which I had never seen or heard of before was DVD turntables, which allowed D.J Shadow and Chief Xcel to actually scratch parts of videos during the sets of the various M.Cs. I was very impressed by what they did with this technology, as it allowed them to cause parts of videos to skip and jump around, which made it seem like there was dancing in them as the rappers performed.

 

Overall, it was a great show... the only thing that might have made it more complete is if D.J Shadow had performed a live version of "Midnight in a Perfect World," which I started a large-scale chant for but which was never touched upon. I would highly recommend seeing Quannum live after catching them in D.C, though the thirty dollars I paid for a ticket was a bit steep in price, even for a great line-up like this.

[lumpenproletariat]

I saw the 5,6,7,8's tonight.

Yes, from Kill Bill.

 

They were very cool.

[Wyvern]

I got to see Eyedea & Abilities, Blueprint, Illogic, and Grayskul this evening at the 9:30 Club in concert.

 

First, a little back story leading up to this event... My friend Brian from the rock department of WRGW managed to hook me up with a spot on the guestlist for the show, which allowed me to get in for free and was supposed to get me backstage passes and VIP access, though they ended up denying those when I came to pick the tickets up. The guestlist spot also allowed me to take one person along with me for free, and after much contemplation on whether she should study for exams or go, my friend Bess ended up coming along as well.

 

The first act to perform was Grayskul, who I had never heard music from before but who ended up being good. The two M.Cs of the group, Onry Ossbourn and JFK, came out onto the set carrying alien dolls on their shoulders, and a T.V airing static was placed on the center of the stage for a kind of ominous effect. A person playing live bass complimented their rhymes, which seemed to be largely centered around the elements of science fiction and the supernatural. I'll be sure to check for material from them in the future.

 

The next act to take the stage was Illogic. Those of you who read my previous review of Weightless in Campbell will know that when I saw him there for the first time live, none of the sound equipment worked and he ended up performing spoken word. This time, all the sound equipment worked perfectly and he put on a very good musical set. He remains one of my very favorite M.Cs.

 

After Illogic finished his set, Blueprint took the stage, and promptly tore the entire house down with his performance. He was a true entertainer, seemlessly intermingling comedy with more tragic narratives and spitting with a ferocity and passion rarely seen in hip hop. Highlights of his set included a "serious" poem he kicked about the merits of skinny and fat girls, a collective dance involving people kneeling to the ground in intervals, and a fantastic live performance of his verse on the track "Alchemy." Print's set was probably my favorite of the evening.

 

Finally, Eyedea & Abilities came out to perform, and they completely killed it as well. D.J Abilities is probably my favorite scratcher, and his live sets far from disappoint... he's simply amazing. Eyedea is almost equally skilled on rhymes, and kicked several freestyles while acting as the vocal equivalent of D.J Abilities scratching. One thing that really impressed me was the amount of interactions between the M.C and the D.J in their set, as the manner that they complimented each other was entirely unique. Eyedea's enormous amount of energy on stage was also extremely infectious.

 

Other notable things in the show include this random drunk girl who came up to me and said something along the lines of "You look like you're rocking in Heaven" in response to my getting live, which was very funny and quite flattering. In addition, after the show, I picked up several rare tour only CDs and promos for the station, and also connected and chatted with several of the artists. Bess and I actually ended up hanging out with D.J Abilities for a while afterwards since he decided to accompany us all the way to our dorms, as his hotel was close by. He's a really nice guy with a strong foundation in jazz, and considers the turntable the most important musical instrument of the last twenty years.

 

Overall, the show was amazing and I had a great time.

[Wyvern]

Yesterday night, I went to see Dangermouse & Jemini, Dopestyle 1231, Busdriver, Radioinactive & AntiMC, and Thavius Beck in concert at The Independent in San Francisco.

 

I arrived at the concert hall early, and got to chat with a couple of the artists outside since they were just hanging out there and talking. Busdriver, Thavius Beck, Radioinactive and AntiMC all struck me as some really down-to-earth and friendly individuals, and it was awesome to just trade jokes and thoughts on music with them for a while. Radioinactive has a great sense of humor, and Busdriver is shockingly soft-spoken when talking normally, especially considering his extremely energetic and chaotic recorded material. I later met up with two good friends of mine, Misha and Elizabeth, and we went out to a nearby etheopian restaurant for dinner before waiting outside the club for the doors to open. We also directed Busdriver and co. to some nearby restaurants we had heard of.

 

Shortly before entering the concert hall, we learned that Dangermouse and Jemini would have to perform first due to Jemini's needing to catch a plane early to take care of some urgent matters. Dangermouse said he would stick around to perform a solo set for the final act, however, so that the late crowd showing up for Dangermouse wouldn't be disappointed. Anyway, though there was only a tiny crowd at that point, Dangermouse and Jemini put on a very good set. Jemini put on a live show, which was amplified by his huge hypeman Fort Knoxx.

 

After Dangermouse and Jemini finished their set, Thavius Beck took the stage to perform a short solo set of live electronica. His set was fairly good, though his music doesn't seem to be very oriented towards a live concert hall setting. Never the less, he mixed some very melodic and interesting melodies, and I recommend his material.

 

Once Thavius Beck had finished, Radioinactive and AntiMC immediately took the stage to perform their set. They both put on a good show, with AntiMC working keyboards and drum machines while Radioinactive performed some impressive rhyme schemes and flows. Radioinactive's voice is an acquired taste, and is not my favorite, but his set was never the less well done, and I picked up a new release from him in concert which is great.

 

After Radioinactive & AntiMC left the stage, Busdriver got up to perform, and promptly stole the show for "act of the evening." I had been anticipating Busdriver's performance the most out of all the performers, and was not disappointed. He has an extremely unique voice and flow, and a huge amount of stage presence and charisma live. He even performed a song I requested, "Imaginary Places." and gave Elizabeth a free T-shirt. Both of my friends went and bought his album after his set.

 

After Busdriver left the stage, there was an intermission between acts in which the club got much more crowded, with many late-comers arriving to see Dangermouse's set. Before Dangermouse went on, however, there was another act that my friends and I had never heard of, Dopestyle 1231. To put it bluntly, he was absolutely aweful, and possibly one of the worst live acts I've ever seen. His set was based around a series of attention gimmicks with a little rapping thrown inbetween, and that rapping was not very good. Low points of his set include a children's story that he read straight from the book for literally ten minutes, and a song in which he wanted the crowd to shout the lyrics every other line. His terrible set reached its rock bottom at the end, when he decided to strip off his pants and his boxer shorts in the hopes of getting peoples attention with some full frontal male nudity. He failed, and his pathetic nudity attention-getter was completely out of place in a hip hop concert.

 

Finally, once Dopestyle had finished his set, Dangermouse took the stage to perform a solo mix set. It was very impressive, and included some very innovative mixes such as a remix of Nas' "It ain't Hard to Tell" to the beat of Portishead's "Roads." He also formed several beats on the spot, which were all very well done. The real surprise of his set, however, was when Boots Riley, an M.C from the critically-acclaimed hip hop group The Coup, showed up as a surprise special guest and performed while Dangermouse spinned behind the boards. Boots put on a good set, which was highlighted by a remix of a classic Coup song to the beat of Soul's of Mischief's "93' Till Infinity" (possibly one of the greatest hip hop beats of all time) which they did as an encore.

 

Overall, it was an evening full of surprises that was well worth the admissions fee, despite Dopestyle 1231's terrible set.

[Wyvern]

Yesterday, I got to see the Maroons (Lateef the Truthspeaker and Chief Xcel) live at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

 

The show was a free concert dedicated to the music of Femi Kuti, and I went to see it with two of my friends. The lineup of performances included the Antibalas and an opening act whose name I forget, but we decided to skip both of them in favor of walking around the city for a bit. We got back to the Gardens shortly before the Maroons' set started up, and stayed there for the whole thing. It was a very good set, and included a guest appearence from the Lifesavas, who showed up to help Lateef hype the crowd up. I had seen both the Maroons and the Lifesavas at the Quannum Spectrum show I went to in D.C previously, and they both once again impressed me with their soulful and energetic styles of M.Cing.

 

I'm definitely looking forward to the Maroons album "Ambush," and think that it has the potential to be one of the best things Quannum will release, up there with Blackalicious' "NIA."

[Wyvern]

Today, I went to see a hip hop show celebrating the 20th anniversary of Kevvy Kev's Stanford radio program, "Bang the Drum," with a friend of mine in San Francisco. The concert was free and advertised a very impressive lineup of M.Cs and D.Js, both underground and mainstream, which included Foreign Legion, Double Life Crew, Motion Man, Third Sight, Felonious, Cali Agents, Heiroglyphics, Paris, RZA of Wu-tang Clan, and Chuck D of Public Enemy amongst others.

 

Upon arriving at the concert hall, my friend and I noticed that it had switched locations and was being held on the other side of Golden Gate Park. We were already running late for the show since we had got off to a late start, and ended up getting a bit lost on our walk through the park, which included such eccentric sights as gangs of pot smokers, Indian Hare Krishna Festivals, and Old School Baseball Games. When we finally managed to find the correct location of the event, we were already about thirty minutes late, and had missed a few of the opening acts including Paris. Never the less, we managed to get to the very front of the stage when Foreign Legion came on, and stuck there throughout the rest of the sets.

 

The acts of the concert were mixed, and there were a couple of disappointments along with a few pleasant surprises. On the down side of things: Chuck D was mysteriously absent, the Cali Agents were arrested on their way to the show and weren't able to perform, and Third Sight stubbornly refused to go off the stage after his boring fifteen minute set. On the up side of things: RZA and Tajai of Heiroglyphics both put on great performances, Double Life Crew brought along L'Roneous Da Versifier as a special guest, and Felionious put on an excellent set which included some incredible beatboxing. Kevvy Kev, who was working the turntables for a few of the sets, also seemed like a really nice guy... I consider 20 years of radio an incredible accomplishment. :-)

 

Overall, it was a pretty good concert that was well worth the free admission, but was from the best I've ever seen.

[Wyvern]

This evening, I saw Shambalha (Born Infinite & Agua) and a group called the Cornel West Theory for free at the George Washingston University Hippodrome.

 

The concert opened with the Cornel West Theory (that's not the exact spelling of their name, but I can't remember it fully), a local D.C jam band. The Hippodrome was practically empty due to the show being underpromoted, and the few people that were there moved up to the front to watch them play. They played various tunes based on love and religion, but were unfortunatly not very good due to their lead singer having terrible vocals and repetitive subject matter. Their set also seemed to go on for too long for an opening act.

 

After Cornel West Theory finished up, there was an intermission between acts in which I got to meet up with Born Infinite, who I've met several times before and who has previously given me promos of his music (which I've played on my show). He immediatly recognized me upon seeing me and gave me a large handshake/hug, and we chatted for a bit before he took the stage and performed with Agua as Shambalha.

 

Unlike Cornel West Theory, Shambalha put on a very energetic and entertaining set which the tiny crowd enjoyed. I think that Born Infinite may currently be D.Cs strongest local hip hop act, though D.C has never had much of a scene truth be told. After their set had finished, I bought a copy of his official album and hung around to chat with him and Agua for a bit. Overall, it was worth going to to see Shambalha perform and chat with Infinite, but Cornel West Theory was a lot to endure.

[Wyvern]

Last Thursday, I went to see a number of local D.C and Maryland hip hop acts perform at the GWU Hippodrome, including DPA, Flex Mathews, Seez Mics, Project Lumens, Dirty Water, and Enjay. The show was free, though the crowd was rather small due to the artists having very little material out and the show's being poorly promoted. While waiting for the first act to perform, I met one of the M.Cs of Dirty Water and chatted with him a bit, exchanging contact info with him and taking a promotional copy of his album. He struck me as a nice guy, and seemed eager for a bit of exposure on the radio.

 

The first act to perform was DPA, which was a group that consisted of two M.Cs and one D.J. They performed some traditional hip hop, and were decent though they ultimately came across as average and were forgettable (which is part of the reason that this paragraph is so short!)

 

After DPA finished their set, Flex Mathews the "out-of-work super hero" stepped up to perform his set. I had seen Flex before as a warm up act for Breeze Evahflowin and Immortal Technique, and had really enjoyed the material he had performed when he opened for them. I enjoyed his performance even more this evening, as he performed a longer set and had the chance to go into some excellent songs, including his signature track "Backpacker's Anthem" which I can definately relate to. It's a shame that Flex doesn't have any recorded material out, as his performances suggest that he may be one of Washington D.C's most talented rappers. I got his contact info after the show ended, and am hoping to get him to perform on my show at some point.

 

When Flex Mathews finished his set, Seez Mics took the stage to perform. Seez was perhaps the best known out of the artists that performed in the concert, as his group Educated Consumers is known in the underground circuit in areas outside of D.C. Seez Mics' performance was pretty good, though I've always appreciated his freestyling abilities more than his recorded materials, and he only performed songs from his albums during his set.

 

After Seez Mics finished, there was a brief intermission and then Project Lumens took their turn at performing. I had never heard of this group before, but the two M.Cs of Project Lumens greatly impressed me with their energetic stage presence and rhymes, as they were jumping around, dancing, and doing cartwheels over the course of their entire set. I was dancing in the front row, and one of the M.Cs actually jumped down from the stage and had me sing one of the choruses, which was fun. While Project Lumens' energy and stage performance surpassed any of the other performers, my one complaint with their set would be that their beats didn't compliment the energetic nature of their rhymes, as the music seemed too sluggish for the pace of the energetic M.Cs. Never the less, Project Lumens was definately one of the evenings highlights.

 

The final two acts of the evening were Dirty Water and Enjay, both of whom had their moments but were ultimately unimpressive. Dirty Water's vocals were somewhat interesting, but their monotonous beats made their performance boring. The opposite can be said of Enjay, who had excellent beats but a very poor voice and delivery. Fortunately, all of the M.Cs took the stage at the very end of the show and performed a number of excellent posse cuts together, also performing a twenty minute freestyle session after they had finished with their official tracks.

 

Overall, it was a fun show, but certainly not the best line up of acts I've seen in concert. Never the less, it was a good way to learn more about D.C's hip hop talent, and was certainly worth attending given the free price.