Concert Critique

[Gryphon]

Mynx and I went to the Fort Minor concert last night. I'm not usually one for writing critique, so if I miss something, I'm sure Mynx'll post and flesh this out.

 

The opening acts were ok. We had a DJ up first to try and warm the crowd up a bit, followed by some local tallent who'd been on tour with Fort Minor over in Austraila. Neither inspired me to go out and hunt down any albums they'd put out, but I was really only there for the main act.

 

Fort Minor:

The main event was awesome. Right from the moment they came on stage they had everyone watching involved in the show from those standing right up front in the mosh to those up the back on the mezzanine floor.

 

There were a couple of songs they did that I didn't recognise, I'm not sure if it was just that the song was significantly different from how it sounded on the album or if they were numbers I'd not heard off a bonus CD. Despite being slightly lost for the lyrics on a few occations the atmosphere was electric and all up it was a brilliant evening and well worth the price tag.

 

The highlight of the evening was probably watching Mike's control of the crowd, he knew exactly what he was doing and it was awesome. Before the night was out he had us singing the chorus lines for the songs off the album and generally leaping around while enjoying the experience for all we were worth.

[Patrick]

Last night I went to see Epica (www.epica.nl)

 

Brief band info: Epica is a dutch band, who play gothic metal. Their guitarist was previously a member (and founder) of After Forever, and he performs the grunting vocals in Epica's songs, and is also the main songwriter. Epica consists of two guitarists (one of whom sings) a bassist, drummer, keyboardist and female singer.

 

The opening act of the concert was a French group called The Old Dead Tree. I was very surprised that the singer had only a very faint accent in English (which if you've heard French people speaking English before is pretty surprising). They played a style, which I would most easily compare to Opeth (who are categorized on Wikipedia as progressive death metal). They weren't brilliant, but the show they put on wasn't bad at all, and served as a great warm up for the main act.

 

This was my first time seeing Epica, I had previously not even seen pictures of them, and let me tell you that the singer looks gorgeous. To top that off she has a really good stage presence, interacting very well with both the public and the other band members. She is also a very good singer, and I think that the band alltogether sounded even better live than on the studio album I have from them.

 

They played a close to two hour long set, taking material from both of their albums (only one of which I had listened to prior to the concert). All in all it was a concert I enjoyed very much, and would recommend the band to anyone into the style, and able to catch them during their current tour, because they really are very good live.

[Wyvern]

Last night, I went to see Blackalicious, Lifesavas, Fatlip, and Pigeon John at the Pauly Ballroom on UC Berkeley Campus.

 

The price of tickets for non-Berkeley-students was steep at 23 dollars a shot, but I decided to go anyway since Blackalicious and Lifesavas have put on consistantly hype shows in my previous experiences seeing them live. I had also heard very good things about Pigeon John's live show and enjoy his recorded material, so that increased my motivation to go. The Pauly Ballroom was a large university venue with plenty of space for crowds, and I got there early to take a spot in the front row before it filled out.

 

Pigeon John was the first to perform, and he more or less lived up to his reputation of being a fun act to see live. He definitely has a distinct personality as a rapper, with a kind of deliberate corniness that's fun to listen to and watch on stage. One of the highlights of his set was a new dance he invented, the "Pigeon John", which consists of flapping your arms back and forth like a bird and clapping your hands while standing in place and pivoting your hips. He also took a moment or two between his reggae-inspired flows to feel people's faces in the front row, mine included (his hand was sweaty too, ecch). The track of his that worked best live was his semi-sung greeting track, "Hello Everybody," which definitely got the crowd amped. Overall, Pigeon John put on a fun set.

 

The next act that took the stage was Omni, who was not announced in the show's line-up but came out to rock a surprise set. I've never been much of a fan of Omni's music, and his set unfortunately lacked the quirky personality of Pigeon John's performance. To his credit, Omni's flow did translate better to the stage than it has to CD, but he still struck me as a very generic M.C, and I was somewhat bored by the end of his set.

 

Things picked up considerably when Fatlip came out to perform, however. As a former member of a legendary rap group the Pharcyde, Fatlip has a very interesting voice and flow... one that's somewhat reminscent of Ol' Dirty Bastard when performed solo. Moreover, the way that Fatlip moved and carried himself on stage seemed to ooze confidence and cool, and he was an instant hit with the crowd. He put on a very entertaining set, which included tracks about fish in glass eyeballs and an improvised performance of the famous Pharcyde track "Passin Me By." Good stuff.

 

Lifesavas were the next to take the stage, and this unfortunately didn't seem to be their best evening. They performed a number of new and exclusive unreleased tracks, but none of them seemed to be quite as hype or well-crafted as their previous material. The sound quality of the set also went downhill with microphone distortion about halfway through, but they fortunatly managed to get it corrected near the end of their set in time to perform two of their best numbers: "HelloHiHey" and "You." After watching them destroy it on stage twice before, though, I felt a little disappointed by their show.

 

It took around 30 minutes to completely change around the set-up of the stage before Blackalicious came out to perform the most memorable show of the evening. Accompanying M.C Gift of Gab and D.J Chief Xcel were two soul singers from Oakland and the keyboardist RV Salters (also known under the monicker of General Elektriks). Gift of Gab kicked some insane displays of breath control and flow, but RV Salters really stole my attention, not only with his excellent keyboard playing, but also with the amazing dance moves that he was able to do while performing. The way he moved his legs and feet were almost like breakdancing, but he managed to combine it with the keyboard playing in a spectacular way. After a while, Gift of Gab began doing some freestyling over Salters keyboard playing, and then Lateef the Truthspeaker came out from backstage as the second surprise guest of the evening. He did several collaborative tracks with Gift of Gab and Chief Excel, and impressed people with his M.Cing (as he always does in concert). The real highlight of the evening for me was when Lateef began performing the extra-funky dance track "Lady Don't Tek No," which is a duet between him and Lyrics Born as the group Latyrx. I was wondering who was going to perform Lyrics Born's verse on the song, when all of a sudden Lyrics Born himself emerges from backstage and begins performing the track with Lateef! Having both members of Latyrx show up as surprise guests drove the crowd into a total frenzy, though they only performed that one track together. Blackalicious closed the evening out by doing a track with Lateef and Pigeon John, and then going into an enormous freestyle cipher that included Fatlip, Omni, and some random Berkeley chick who was good at freestyling. Overall, it was a great performance, and was worth attending for the surprise visit from Latyrx alone. I would also recommend catching RV Salters live, as he's a highly talented keyboardist and a real kick to watch on stage.

[Wyvern]

Tonight, I went to see People Under the Stairs, Time Machine, and Psalm One at the Independent in San Francisco.

 

Psalm One is one of the more talented female M.Cs to emerge from the hip hop underground, and was the first M.C to take the stage. She has an interesting background and history, as she's a certified chemist a spunky b-girl from Chicago's immensely talented hip hop scene. I enjoy her recorded material, and her talent as an M.C was apparent on stage, but her set felt a bit lacking as she only performed her tracks in sequence and didn't move around a lot or go out of her way to impress people. She's a very good M.C and I'm looking forward to her new album, but her live performance felt very average to me.

 

Time Machine definitely picked the pace up several notches after Psalm finished her set. Jaysonic, Comel, and DJ Mekalek showed and proved with a very well planned-out and energetic set. One thing that really struck me about the group was how excellent the coordination was between Jaysonic and Comel, as they performed entire songs together in sync and broke out into several syncopated dance moves with ease. One highlight of their set was a song about a spelling bee where they both pulled out chairs and took seats to spell out their words over the beat, shifting their leg positions with every passing turn. Another great moment was a song about somebody hitting a panic button, where DJ Mekalek pulled out a flashing siren and placed on top of his turntables. Time Machine definitely rocked the crowd with a very entertaining set.

 

People Under the Stairs closed out the evening as the headline act, and put on an excellent set. They were dressed in construction worker clothes and had a flashing rainbow disco-type light with them on stage. Their set didn't rely as much on planning as Time Machine's set, but was better than Time Machine's set on the quality of their M.Cing live alone. Thes One and Double K both really poured their hearts into their mics over the course of the set, and really got the crowd hyped up with their jumping and movements on stage. Thes One also played a some MPC drums while Double K scratched on the turntables, and they both gave me love during their set for getting live in the front row. They performed two of their most famous tracks: "San Francisco Knights" and "Acid Raindrops." Unfortunately, they didn't perform their classic track "We'll Be There," which I requested. Still, it was an excellent show.

 

On a side note, I once again got the sense that girls were hinting that I should make a move by rubbing up against me in dancing and making excuses to talk to me while waiting in line around merch tables, but I once again have absolutely no idea how to function in these sorts of social situations. >_

[Wyvern]

I found this footage of one of the highlights of the People Under the Stairs show that I saw in San Francisco, and thought I would share it here. This is PUTS performing the most memorable track of the evening, "San Francisco Knights":

 

Watch the Video on MySpace Here

 

It's hard to make out anyone in the audience given the quality of the footage/lighting, but I'm one of the dudes with the long arms in the front row. ;-p I should have a bunch of pictures from the show to link to eventually as well.

 

Peace,

Wyv~

[Dros]

Hmm... The last concert I went to was put on by a local band here in Ferndale, Washington. They're pretty nifty n' all. Very Very Very energetic and outspoken. It was fun. They play alternative/funk music. Yay for funk

[Wyvern]

I've been visiting D.C for the last couple of days to attend my sister's highschool graduation, and took the opportunity to see Edan and Prefuse 73 live, as they happened to be performing at the 9:30 Club this evening.

 

Edan was the act that really drew me into seeing the show, as he's been critically acclaimed for his live show from just about everyone who's had the opportunity to see him. After watching him perform, I can safely say that he lived up to the hype. He and his rhyming partner Dagha both came out dressed in suave suite and tie combos, and proceeded to destroy their respective microphones from the beginning to the end of their set. Too many highlights to mention... Edan used a vocal distortion box to occasionally blur his and Dagha's voices at opportune moments, which complimented the psychadelic rock influence of his music. The psych rock approach didn't end there, as Edan also took several moments in the set to sit down, take out a guitar and a kazoo, and perform some improvised psychedelia of his own. He even threw on Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatal" between two songs, and also didn't hesitate to break out a bit of Hendrix, at which point Dagha threw on a long wig of hair and moshed around the stage in true Hendrix fashion. They also kicked a collaborative rap accapela that was so coordinated it was mind-boggling, and really seemed to have perfected complimenting each others vocals on stage. During the song "Rap Beautician," Edan sat down and kicked his verses while Dagha pulled out a bouquet of flowers and began handing one to each girl in the front rows of the audience- smooth! Edan took a moment to spin old-school hip hop records, and even rapped while scratching simultaneously. Perhaps the most stunning highlight of the set, however, was the song that closed the evening... Edan noted that his mom had invited several middle-aged women to the concert, and that he wanted to end his set on a very soft note. He began strumming a very gentle melody on his guitar, then slammed his foot down on a guitar peddle that gave his instrument a huge heavy metal burst, leading into the raucous track "Rock and Roll." In the middle of the track, Edan pulled out what appeared to be a radio antenna, and began playing melodies through the distortion caused by moving his hands towards and away from the antenna. To top it all off, during Edan's last verse in the song, Dagha pulled out a series of old vinyl records referenced in the lyrics, and shifted through the vinyls like a picture guide to Edan's words. Fantastic set! Highly recommended.

 

Prefuse 73, a psuedonym of the well-known electronica innovator Scott Heron, came out as the headliner of the evening. The group consisted of Scott Heron (who was either on turntable manipulation or on laptop/MPC, I'm not entirely sure), another person aiding on laptop (or turntable, not sure), and a live drummer. Prefuse 73 has definitely made a huge impression on the world of electronica with his music, but unfortunately I didn't think that his compositions translated well to the stage. It was difficult to see what any of the musicians were doing from their respective positions (with the exception of the drummer, who was obviously drumming away), and their music seemed to get tedious after a while. I ended up leaving to catch a metro train after about 50 minutes into their set... More of a headphone listening experience than an act to catch live, in my opinion.

 

Still, great show on the basis of Edan alone. :-) I took several pics inbetween my dancing, and will try and get them up online to share'em here when I get back to Berkeley.

[Wyvern]

Here are some pictures from the Edan and Prefuse 73 show that I went too, courteousy of a new digital camera and a certain amateur who has yet to figure out the intricacies of it... ;-)

 

1) To start things off, here's a snazzy concert poster found posted within the venue. Already hints at the trippy feats to come...

 

2) Edan the gentleman and scholar, adjusting the distortion on his microphone. Dagha, in equally elegant old-school attire, not pictured here.

 

3) Whether it be microphone, turntable, or kazoo and guitar, it's all fine music to the Humble Magnificent.

 

4) The Rap Beautician is in full effect! A definite highlight of the evening and a class move on the part of Dagha. Probably the best pic of the bunch, for the expressions on their faces alone.

 

5) Whether it be microphone, turntable, kazoo and guitar, or antenna frequencies, all music to him.

 

6) Dagha shifts through old vinyls as a picture guide to Edan's verse. At this particular point, they've arrived at a line about the Creedence Clearwater Band.

 

7) Prefuse 73 (pictured at a different angle here) starred as the headliner, but didn't put on as interesting a performance. Still, it was nice to see electronica mastermind Scott Herren in action (he had a pretty cool shirt too).

 

The mandatory ego-boosting "look at me look like a weirdo next to a music artist" pic: Wyvern and Edan.

[Wyvern]

Last night, I went to see Typical Cats, Qwel, Outerlimitz, DJ Om, Dove Rock, and Influence live in concert at the Elbo Room in San Francisco.

 

First, a funny pre-concert story; I was waiting for my friends at Amoeba Records in San Francisco so we could meet up and go to the concert, but they were running late so I ended up browsing in the store for a while. While I was browsing in the hip hop section, I overheard one of the costumers talking to an Amoeba employee about a single that he was working on with a highly respected hip hop producer, Madlib. I got curious and ended up asking him if he was a producer himself, and it turns out that he was the legendary emcee Prince Po from the highly influential rap group Organized Konfusion! I chatted with him for a bit, and he happened to be visiting the area for a concert that he had that night across the street at the Milk Bar nightclub. I slapped myself later for not getting a picture with him, since I had my camera on me... It still amazes me how many influential artists you can find browsing at Amoeba Records!

 

Anyway, I eventually met up with my friends and we hung out on Haight Street for a bit before driving down to the Elbo Room. It was a very intimate venue, with a small stage and dance area on the second floor. Still, the show drew quite a large crowd, probably because the cover charge was unnaturally low at only six dollars. Qwel recognized me from the Washington D.C show I saw him at and we chatted for a bit before the show started.

 

Influence and his partner in rhyme, whose name was something along the lines of Avalon, were the first performers to rock a set. They put on a very short set just to get the crowd warmed up, but were definitely an impressive opening act. Influence and Avalon both had nice flows and cadences, along with some excellent beats which worked really well through the club's sound system. Overall, it was a very nice way to start up the show.

 

Unfortunately, Dove Rock took the stage once Influence and Avalon had finished, and her set was pretty awful. She just stood around in one place on stage with a microphone and spat a bunch of spoken word-ish, pseudo-artistic crap. It was a little sad to see her perform after the animated set from Influence, particularly since a bunch of her friends seemed to be there to try to root her on and get the crowd interested. She realized that the crowd wasn't really feeling her rhymes and tried throwing on a crunk beat to seem more party-oriented, but failed to get anyone moving. Worst of all, she was using CDRs for her beats, and they frequently skipped and malfunctioned. Dove Rock's set was boring, unprofessional and lacking in any sort of passion.

 

After Dove Rock finished, DJ Om played a set of beats from his upcoming album on Galapagos4. Listening to Om's music felt more like an intermission between sets than an actual performance, but the tracks he played were excellent and the crowd was definitely feeling the vibes. DJ Om's music has a very creative Indonesian feel to it (his upcoming album is entitled "DJ Om's Reheated Na'an and Curry," for reference), and he incorporated some great uses of obscure sampling. It wasn't the livest set, but it definitely got me looking forward to his album.

 

Chicago's Outerlimitz were the next to perform, and the first act to get the crowd really hyped up. Outerlimitz are a talented group from the Galapagos4 family consisting of emcees Qwazaar (also one third of the Typical Cats) and Hellsent. The voices and charisma of these two rappers just seem to suggest that they were born to M.C, and they put on a very raw show. Loads of passion and energy over dark futuristic production. Qwa and H.e performed some stand out tracks from their album "Suicide Prevention," as well as unreleased tracks from both of their upcoming solo albums. They had the audience hooked throughout, with catchy choruses and crazy rhyme schemes. Raw aggressive energy at its finest.

 

Speaking of crazy rhyme schemes Qwel took the stage after Outerlimitz to perform a special solo set of tracks from his upcoming "Freezerburner" album with producer Meaty Ogre. Nobody in the audience had ever heard any of the tracks before, but everyone was super-impressed by the end of the set. Some stand out tracks included a track about how babies are born into the world and then die, and an interesting Reggae-inspired track about Rome burning. All of the Meaty Ogre beats backing Qwel were fantastic, and his next album should be amazing if the musical backing of this set is anything to go by.

 

Finally, the rest of the Typical Cats joined Qwel on stage as the headliner of the evening. Qwel, Qwazaar, and Denizen Kane are all excellent solo artists in their own rights, but there's definitely a special chemistry between them when they come together as a group. Denizen kicked off the set with an acapella version of his classic political track 'Patriot Act" (which Zool and I saw him perform solo last Summer). The performance only went uphill from there. You could definitely tell that Typical Cats was a group formed through longtime friendships between the three M.Cs, as they frequently made playful shoves at each other and cracked jokes at each other's expense. They complimented each other perfectly throughout their collaborative tracks, and also performed a couple of solo tracks individually, which were highlighted by Qwel's performance of "Cliché" (one of the best-written battle raps ever, in my opinion). It should be noted that, while all three of the M.Cs rocked it, Qwel kept performing even after Qwazaar and Denizen Kane were too exhausted to spit any more tracks. And when Qwel finally finished, it seemed as if he was still capable of doing another set! Typical Cats put on the best performance of the evening, overall.

 

To wrap this longwinded review up, here's a pic of me and the girlfriend of one of my friends chilling with the Typical Cats T.C group shot!

[Wyvern]

I went to see a free in-store performance by Murs at Amoeba Records in Berkeley this evening

 

This is actually the first in-store performance that the Berkeley branch of Amoeba Records has hosted, and space seemed to be a bit of an issue. While the Amoeba Record stores in Los Angeles and San Francisco have full stages for their frequent live performances, the Berkeley Amoeba was limited to a narrow tabletop for a stage and a couple of speakers in a corner of the store. Amoeba employee and parttime M.C Wonway warmed the crowd up a bit by calling people to the "stage" and freestyling about whatever poses they struck, just killing time while other employees were setting up the laptop that had Murs's beats on it.

 

After a short wait, Murs came up and did a question and answer session with the crowd while Amoeba employees continued to set up the stage. He seemed just as down-to-earth as ever, and answered everyone's questions in a really friendly and comic manner. The Q&A almost felt more like a long two-way discussion between Murs and the audience. After some technical difficulties were solved, Murs put on a short set of tracks from his various albums, including segments of tracks that he colloborated on with Slug of Atmosphere. He also interspersed his set with plenty of comedy, including a spontaneous interpretation of a Kriss Kross track and plenty of flirtation with one girl in the front row. Despite the poor stage set-up and limited performance time, Murs put on a very good set.

 

Here are a few pics of Murs and myself which didn't come out good... feel free to poke fun at the "groupie-ness" they seem to suggest. x_x #1 - chilled eyes pose, #2 - tender moment pose, #3 - serious business pose

[Wyvern]

Yesterday, I went to see the 22nd annual "Bang the Drum" concert, which was hosted for free in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

 

I had seen one of the "Bang the Drum" celebrations a few Summers ago with a friend of mine, and despite an enormous line-up of performers which included several big names in hip hop, it wasn't overly impressive. This one was no different... Quite a number of talented M.Cs showed up, including Mr. Lif, J-Live, and CL Smooth, but the sound quality was awful, the sets were too short, and the crowd was very lethargic and unsupportive. I was the only one in the front dancing for the first four sets, and then a few other people started moving up front when they saw free stuff being offered out. It's very strange to see such a lazy crowd so far from the stage at a hip hop show, but I suppose that's to be expected of something held in the park. Anyway, there was quite a bit of difficulty with the sound and the speakers, but despite the lack of volume there were some good sets sprinkled throughout. J-Live and Lunar Heights offered the best sets overall with their energy and stage antics, though CL Smooth ended the concert on a very strong note with his classic track "T.R.O.Y." Mr. Lif's set was unfortunately not as good as usual, as he only had time to perform two or three tracks and barely had any volume in the sound system for his beats. Anyway, I'm not going to get into a run down of every set as there was a lot of them, but here are some photos to summarize the event. Enjoy.

 

1) Kevvy Kev- host of the radio show that "Bang the Drum" celebrates.

 

2) Opio (of Souls of Mischief) performed a couple of tracks to an empty front row.

 

3) Sol Rebelz did a couple of nice tracks.

 

4) Z-Man was surprisingly good live, with plenty of stylish dance moves and charismatic flair during his set.

 

5) Bucc Rogers and co. did a couple numbers. The M.C to the left in the picture was the best of the three.

 

6) Fat Hed drove in from Los Angeles for a very short set, but I've never been a big fan of his style.

 

7) Lunar Heights put on one of the better sets of the event, with lots of infectious energy.

 

Marc Stretch (of Foreign Legion) freestyled a bit with his rhyming partner Radio Active.

 

9) Mr. Lif is usually a killer live performer, but his set was ruined by time constraints and major sound difficulties. It's a shame since he was one of the special guests, and flew in from Boston to do his set.

 

10) J-Live came through with the best set despite sound difficulties, and impressed the crowds by rhyming and scratching simultaneously.

 

10) CL Smooth was the last of the big out-of-towner guests, and closed the concert on a strong note with his track "T.R.O.Y."

 

To end this review, here's a pic of Mr. Lif and myself, though it's not a good pic of me since I look totally out of it. >_dead stereo and some roller skates.

[Wyvern]

Last night, I went and saw Pigeon John, Busdriver, and Caural at the Bar of Contemporary Art in San Francisco.

 

I was a bit nervous about this trip, since it was my first time traveling solo from Berkeley to San Francisco for a late night show while relying soley on public transportation. Fortunately, there's a crowded late night bus that runs by the hour from San Francisco to Berkeley, so I had no trouble getting around despite the lack of car (and license, for that matter >_

 

Anyway, onto the concert... The show took place at the BOAC, a tiny and intimate bar that had no concert stage to speak of. The set up was two speakers on the ground and two hanging from the ceiling, with a projector in the back showing some latin video thing on mute. There wasn't any line established to seperate the "stage" from the crowd, which resulted in many of the acts performing right next to people in the audience.

 

Electro-wizkid Caural started things off with a solo set of his beats, which he mixed and manipulated while working his MPC drum machine. He put on an excellent and varied mix of beats that, unlike electronica acts like Prefuse 73, managed to stay consistantly interesting live. One highlight of his set was a beat that used the theme music from the original 6-bit "Legend of Zelda," which was mixed very well and sounded great over Caural's complex drum patterns. I was surprised at how good he was at performing solo, and am definitely looking forward to his new album in October.

 

After Caural's solo set, Busdriver took the stage with Caural backing him as a D.J. Known for his insane styles and rapid-fire delivery, Busdriver was one of the main reasons I decided to come out to the show. As usual, he pretty much went crazy and delivered. I'm not a fan of *all* of his recent music, but you have to respect whatever direction an amazingly eccentric talent like this takes. The tracks ranged from mindboggling speed rap rhythms to echoey distorted singing, which he enabled via a foot pedal that changed the sound feedback on his microphone. He went so far as to use two microphones on some tracks to enable multiple effects at once. Some highlights of his set included his always-impressive standout track "Imaginary Places," and a new track called "Whooptie Doo" where he went into the crowds and put one arm around different people in the audience while rapping about their current situation. He's one of the best M.Cs to emerge from L.A's prestigous Project Blowed collective, and remains an inexhaustible source of energy live. Caural did his part in backing Busdriver well, going into some daring drum patterns that challenged Busdriver's flows. Great set.

 

Once Busdriver and Caural finished their set, bTwice took to the boards and Pigeon John came out to perform as the evening's headliner. While Busdriver was the greater of the stylistic madmen, Pigeon John put on the best set of the show. What's great about Pigeon John's music is that it's always a load of fun, and the concert really turned into a party after he started summoning the crowds participation with his charismatic humor. There was one point where he put his finger on the lips of a guy who'd been standing still in the front row frowning the entire evening, and he managed to make the guy smile despite the guy's best efforts not to do so. At another point, Pigeon John had the crowds come really close in a circle around him as he performed the track and distributed high-fives. Unlike Busdriver's relentless onslaught, PJ also varied up the moods of his tracks a lot, bouncing from upbeat singing to serious storytelling with the greatest of ease. To top things off, he brought out Lyrics Born as a surprise guest M.C to perform a couple of verses with him, but Pigeon John definitely stayed in the limelight the whole time. A great set... people who doubt that hip hop shows can be a good time should check his live act out!

 

To finish off this review, here's something new from me: a slice of video footage! The lighting of the venue wasn't good for taking videos, so the visuals are very shady and hard to make out, but here's a snippet of Busdriver performing a part of his yet-to-be-released track "Recreational Paranoia." (Edit: embedding the video within the post didn't seem to work, so here's a link to it)

 

 

Notice how close to crowd he is. ;-) The many advantages of concerts at intimate venues! According to Busdriver, this track only really works in German nightclubs at three in the morning.

 

EDIT (10/22/06): A professional video of a snippet of Busdriver's set from this show surfaced on youtube, so I thought I'd provide a link to it here. I'm the guy grooving out in the front row:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYkq_I7VAL8

 

Yay for moving about while others only bob their heads. ;-p

[The Portrait of Zool]

That sounds like an awesome show Wyv. I am so bummed we never hooked up this summer! >_

[Wyvern]

Last night, I saw the "Hell Freezes Over Tour" featuring Typical Cats, Qwel, Outerlimitz, DJ Om and Influence at the the Elbo Room in San Francisco.

 

Since the lineup and venue are essentially the same as the previous Typical Cats concert I reviewed in this thread, I won't go into too much detail in this review. There were a few noteworthy differences from the previous Typical Cats show I reviewed, though. Outerlimitz's set included Silence this time around, a member of the group who wasn't touring with them during their last show at the Elbo Room. He had a lot of stage presence due to his height and danced around the stage while Outerlimitz performed... he even came out wearing a freaky monster mask when they started their set with the track "Nightmare." Influence also brought along a sort of crew, including an R&Bish type singer who crooned a few choruses throughout his set. Qwel and He.llsent (of Outerlimitz) also performed some new tracks from their respective albums dropping in October.

 

Unfortunately, hell did not freeze over as a result of this show, as sound difficulties began distorting the sets early on and only got worse as the show progressed. Qwel still managed to get the show pretty hype with creative interpretations of his tracks over mainstream gangsta beats, but overall a lot of the performances were reduced to struggling to be heard over noise. Probably the least impressive Galapagos4 show I've seen, though it's not the fault of the performers since just about any act would struggle with a sound system like that.

 

I forgot to bring my camera to this show, so no pics or videos I'm afraid... refer to the previous Typical Cats concert review in this thread if you're curious.

[Wyvern]

On Monday night, I went and saw the "Quit Your Dead End Job" tour featuring Sol.illoquists of Sound, Glue, X:144 & SPS, and Prolyphic at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

 

I'd been waiting for this concert for a while, since the last time I saw Glue was one of the best shows I've ever been to (if not the best!). Bottom line: the "Quit Your Dead End Job" tour did not disappoint. For starters, Bottom of the Hill is a really nice venue that I'd never been to before. It had a kitchen open 24-7, an outdoor balcony, easy-to-find restrooms, and a really nice atmosphere inside. The place actually got crowded as the evening progressed, and the nightly San Francisco crowd ended up being quite lively.

 

Prolyphic was the first to take the stage to perform. I wasn't expecting much from his set since I'd seen him performing tracks with Robust as the Stick Figures on a previous tour (reviewed earlier in this thread), and was left thoroughly bored by their set on that occasion. Fortunatly, Prolyphic seems to have stepped his game up as a solo act, as he put on a nice set. He played it strictly by the books, just performing new tracks from his upcoming records one at a time, but his songs were well-written, well-produced, and performed with a passion. He still wasn't the most exciting live act in the world, but his music left a good impression on the crowd and it was a nice way to start the show.

 

X:144 & SPS, who I'd never heard of prior to this concert, were the next act to perform. X:144 established himself as a showman from the moment he stepped onto the stage, breaking into an oldschool fast-talking hype man routine that grabbed the audience's attention from the get-go. One thing that struck me as interesting about their music was the use of turntablism in their songs, as SPS constructed almost all of the beats live through scratch routines. One standout moment was a track where X:144 had the audience buckle their imaginary seatbelts for a flight, only to break into some hyper rhyming patterns as SPS scratched the beat faster and faster. Another great moment was a tour-only track entitled "Smile," which had the audience doing just that. A very good live act, overall.

 

Glue was next up to bat and, much like the time I saw them before, they pretty much tore the house down with an amazing performance and stole the show. For those who don't know, Glue is a three-piece hip hop group consisting of two-time freestyle champion Adeem on vocals, DJ DQ the "folktablist" on the scratch, and super-producer Maker handling the beats. Maker, who hadn't been involved in Glue's live set the last time I saw them, actually participated this time around by providing drum patterns and echoey effects on his trusty MPC while Adeem performed. An emphasis should be placed on "performed" here. The great thing about Adeem is that, in addition to being an amazing rapper and freestyler, he has a really fun down-to-earth personality and knows how to get a crowd involved and active in his set. He also performs mindboggling verbal feats on stage, which really must be seen to be believed (don't take my word for it. Scroll to the bottom of this post!). As if Adeem's antics weren't enough, DJ DQ seems blessed with the ability to manipulate sound using only his hands and a record... Adeem even explained at one point that DQ only speaks in scratch, and that they need to bring a set of tables every time they have a group discussion just so they can get feedback from him (haha!). DJ DQ's solo scratch set was worth the price of admission alone. Too many highlights in Glue's set to mention here, but it'd be wrong of me not to mention their closing number. After getting almost everyone in the crowd to give highfives to one another, Adeem stepped into the crowd and performed a rousing rendition of the track "Ain't Nothing Promised About Tommorow," which ended in a collosal group hug around Adeem while he burst into a ridiculous non-stop quadruple-time flow. O_O Whatever you do, don't miss Glue's live show.

 

Once Glue had wrapped things up, the Sol.illoquists of Sound took the stage as the evening's headliner. I had heard good things about S.O.S and had read some rave reviews of their live shows, but wasn't too familiar with their music. The group's composition is interesting, as it consists of two married couples: Alexandra & Swamburger and Tanya Combs & DiVinci. I was particularly interested in seeing what the hype around DiVinci was about, as I'd heard many good things about his live MPC work, including a rave review from the Pen's own drummondo in this thread. Well, I'm gonna cosign drummondo here, as DiVinci was an absolute beast behind the boards live! The other Sol.illoquists were good, particularly Alexandra with her interesting style of singing voice, but it's fair to say that DiVinci stood out the most amongst the four of them. It wasn't just the way he played his set of three MPCs with his hands, arms, elbows, head, teeth, or feet, it was the entire way that he carried himself throughout the set. For example, after the Sol.illoquists asked for the crowd's opinion of the Black Eyed Peas (cue collective booing), they went into their own intelligent rendition of a Black Eyed Peas track and actually made it good. During the track, DiVinci came out and did an insane gorilla dance on stage, shaking his rump around and actually eating a banana before tossing the peal into the crowd! The dancing didn't stop there, as Swamburger jumped into the crowd and formed a breakdancing circle, which quite a few breakers in the crowd danced in to the rhythm of DiVinci's "percalater" beats. The set ended with all of the other acts clamoring back on stage to help the Sol.illaquists perform their final track, and everyone in awe as DiVinci cranked the evening's last drum beatdown. Great set, even better show!

 

Since I failed to deliver on pictures in the last review, I figured I'd make for it with a couple of videos I took from this concert. ;-) Note: there's a little swearing in them (no thanks to me :-p) and the sound quality goes in and out on some of them (I've finally figured out where the audio part of the camera is...), but I think they're a fairly accurate sampler. Enjoy:

 

Glue performing part of "Catch as Catch Can":

 

Glue performing part of "Beat Beat Beat"... Adeem actually reached out and grabbed the camera to speak into it at the end of the clip. Much of this track is improvised:

 

DiVinci in one of his calmer moments:

[Wyvern]

This evening, my grandfather took me to see Bob Dylan and his band, who performed with Kings of Leon at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco.

 

My grandfather, who's an absolute Dylan fanatic, really wanted me to see Dylan live, so naturally I obliged. I'm sure many of you would have jumped at the opportunity, but I wasn't particularly excited about this show. I definitely recognize Dylan's talent and see the influence he's had on a generation of music, but there's something about really large concert venues that I just don't enjoy. I feel like something personal is lost when there's a fence seperating the stage fifteen feet from mobs of people, and assigned seating is the general rave. For this show, I found myself seated high in a balcony crammed between two people, to the point where it was difficult to make out everything that happened on stage.

 

Kings of Leon were a pretty generic pop rock act with a couple of catchy melodies, but nothing to write home about. Of course, I'm probably not the best judge when it comes to the quality of these sorts of rock bands, so Kings of Leon fans need not take offense! They walked onto stage with a pretty cool ancient choral chant playing in the background, so they get kudos for that at least. Their set was pretty much what you'd expect at a show like this: one track played after another until the end of the set, all by the books.

 

Bob Dylan and his band also played things pretty much by the books, though they were considerably better than Kings of Leon (check their track record for more details!). Apparently, many of the classic songs like "Highway 61" and "Like a Rolling Stone" were done in an improvisational manner... I don't think I'm enough of a Dylan buff to have noticed all the subtle nuances, though I really liked hearing those songs performed. Bob Dylan's voice has definitely grown hoarser and deeper over the years, but the way he strung his lyrics together was still quite impressive. Though it isn't my favorite style of music, I'm glad I got to catch a legend of his stature live. Still, it's a shame that these sorts of concerts have to be such standard, impersonal affairs... it almost felt like watching video footage of a concert rather than actually attending one. A more interactive and intimate show with Bob Dylan would've pwned, but I guess that sort of thing isn't a possibility these days unless you're flthy stinking rich and feel like blowing half of your moolah on a personal concert party...

[Wyvern]

Last night, I saw the Fall 2006 Mush Tour featuring Daedelus, Caural, Thavius Beck, and Christopher Willit at the Bar of Contemporary Art in San Francisco.

 

I think this is the first show I've trekked out to where the entire line-up consisted of live electronic music, so I was curious to see what the producers would offer to make their beats interesting live. Daedelus is, in my opinion, one of the most original and innovative electronic/instrumental hip hop producers working today, and I'd heard very good things about his live show. Caural and Thavius Beck I had seen live beats from on previous occasions (both recorded in this thread), and they've always impressed me with their beatwork. This evening, I met with Thavius Beck at the merch counter and chatted with him for a bit until I realized that the first act had already started and moved up to the front of the tiny venue.

 

Christopher Willit was the warm-up act for the San Francisco show, and he had a little band along with a female vocalist accompanying him. Their music was very low-key and trance-like, so soft that it took me a minute or two to pick up on the fact that they were performing. They definitely had a dream-like headtrip quality to their set, which worked well for what it was but sort of dragged a bit near the end. Still, there were some very interesting moments in their set, including one point where the drummer began making these squeaky sounds by rolling his drumstick across a cymbal, and the horn player responded with some jazzy echoes. Not a band that I'd invest in or really pay to see, but kind of a nice mood setter never the less.

 

Thavius Beck was the first of the central Mush line-up to perform, and he rocked out on an MPC drum machine and SP sampler, as well as a laptop. Listening to his music is kind of like being sent to the futuristic world of "Bladerunner" and going on a chaotic acid trip. Thavius performed mostly new tracks that haven't made any of his albums yet, and his excellent combination of swirling synths and intricate drum programming definitely impressed the crowd. Very good set, and great to see that he's been keeping himself super-busy with new material.

 

Caural was next up to perform, and set up a video slideshow that displayed the eyes of different people to compliment his music. I was very impressed with his solo set when I saw him open for Busdriver and Pigeon John about a month ago, and this set was longer and even better. There was a real sense of care and refinement in the way he constructed his complex drum programming and mixed his tracks, and the things he flipped ranged from odd nostalgic rock records to his interpretation of the original 6-bit

* theme. Caural also chopped up old school hip hop vocal samples from Q-Tip (of Tribe Called Quest) and others, and interspersed them throughout his songs to good effect. One definite highlight of his set was when he flipped the piano loop from his track "Photograph" and chopped it to perfection, making entirely new melodies out of it. Great set.

 

Daedelus was the last to perform, and single-handedly turned the BOCA into a raver techno dance party. For those who don't know Daedelus, his style might be described as a cross between a Victorian dandy (everything from his clothes, to the way he speaks, to the samples he toys with in his music) and a mad scientist. Daedelus flexed his style in a very interesting way over the course of his set, using a blinking sampler board to

* and transform them into an electro dance mix. He really got the crowds dancing and raving away, which sort of surprised me since even super-energetic hip hop shows tend to get little dancing these days. One awesome moment of his set was when he took a moment to thank the crowd, only to reveal that he'd recorded his own voice via laptop. He then chopped up his own "thank you"s and turned them into a dance tune... very original! Another great set. It's good to know that electronics can be entertaining to see live.

 

* Note: Visual quality of the video is horrible due to the poor lighting of the venue, so consider these links more like audio compliments to the review. Caural's video eye projections can still be seen, though.

[Wyvern]

This evening, I went and saw the Islands, Subtitle, and Blueprint at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

 

Choosing to go to this show was a tough decision, since Kid Koala, Fog, and Grayboy were performing at a nearby venue at the same time. I decided to go to this show in the end since Blueprint has consistantly proven himself a fun act to see live, and I was very curious to see what Subtitle was like concert. I'd never heard of the indie rock band The Islands before, but apparently they have a large following, since the indie rock kids had taken all of the spots in the front row well before the show started and prior to my arriving. One thing that I'll vouch for with this gang is that they have a lot more cute girls than your typical hip hop crowd, but somehow I didn't get the same feel of enthusiasm from them, at least not until the Islands came on. It might have been a bad idea on the part of the show organizer to have two hip hop acts opening for a rock act, or maybe it was just the folks in San Francisco this evening, but there was a certain disconnectedness between the audience and the music that brought the vibe of the show down from the start.

 

Blueprint and D.J Rare Groove opened the show with a typical Blueprint-style mash up of acapellas, impromptu remixes, and old school dance tracks. Unfortunately, he seemed tired and the audience was mostly unresponsive, and the set ended up not being very engaging. You could tell that he was trying to loosen up the audience with a bit of fun, but he talked with the crowd a bit too much and it muddled down his set by the end. It's a shame, since when Blueprint's in his element, he can be absolutely awesome live. This just wasn't his evening.

 

Subtitle a.k.a Giovanni Marks was next to take the stage, and he put on interesting but somewhat unexciting set. Mr. Marks is rightfully considered one of the current L.A stylists (alongside dudes like Busdriver and Existereo) for his original approach to rapping, which consists of a monotone drone that sounds like a machine processing syllables. He's also very creative lyrically, and performed tracks with subjects ranging from descriptions of metro systems in three different countries to his attempt to quit smoking, only to start up again, only to quit again, only to start up again, etc. The trouble with Subtitle as a live act is that his extremely deadpan style of rapping seems to fade into the background amongst a crowd waiting for a headliner act to appear. His style's difficult to digest, and there's nothing he does to make it any more accessible live. That's not to say he didn't have his moments; he did get half the crowd waltzing for one track, with many partnering up with total strangers (myself included!). Overall, though, I wasn't impressed with his live show.

 

The Islands were the last act to perform, and proved to be the best showmen of this evening's lineup. The Islands are a six-piece rock band who have some previous affiliations to the rock band The Unicorns, which accounts for part of their large following. They used a very wide range of instruments in their set, including four different kinds of guitars, a banjo, a clarinet, a synth keyboard, marachas, a tambourine, a violin, and a cello. This was my first exposure to them, and I wasn't really into all of the tracks that they were playing... a number of them felt a little too light and bouncy for my tastes. Still, they had a couple of undeniably killer tracks that the crowds who knew their music previously went into absolute hysterics over. Subtitle also stepped back onto stage at one point for a collabo track, and sounded very good over the Islands' rock stuff.

 

Still, not a very good show overall... sorta bummed that I missed the chance to see Fog and Kid Koala for this. :/ You can't win'em all, though.

 

I might edit some video from this show into this post a bit later, so be on the lookout for it if yer interested.

[Wyvern]

Today, I went and saw Zion I & the Grouch perform with the Visionaries at a free in-store at Rasputins Records in Berkeley.

 

The show took place around a small stage set up in the DVD section of the store, which was a pleasant surprise since Rasputins in-stores typically occur from a balcony area that's not as up close and personal. The DVD area got pretty packed by the time the Visionaries had gathered on stage to perform, and they did a very brief but very good set. 2Mex was definitely the highlight of the group, as he had the

of the bunch and improvised and freestyled a number of his lines, rapping about Rasputins and his drive over to Berkeley amongst other things. Quality set.

 

Zion I & the Grouch came on after the Visionaries, and were also very good though they only had time to perform around three tracks due to time constraints. MC Zion was the better of the two MCs live as he was a little more enthusiastic in his delivery, but Grouch flexed his style as well and demonstrated an interesting taste in kicks amongst other things. I managed to grab one of the stylish "Heroes in the City of Dope" T-shirts that they tossed into the crowds, which was worth the free price of admission alone!

 

It was more of a quick music sampler than an actual concert since the two acts only lasted around thirty minutes in total, but it was definitely good stuff and worth checking out.

[Wyvern]

Last night, I went and saw the Hell Tour Skeletour featuring the Shapeshifters, Onry Ozzborn as the Gigantics, and Clockwerk at the Elbo Room in San Francisco.

 

The show started off a little iffy, with one of the most disrespectful and unresponsive crowds I've seen in a while. It never ceases to amaze me... why do these people drive out and pay 10 dollars for a show? Anyway, the opening act Clockwerk was pretty average, so I guess some of the indifference might have been merited. Still, it was just spooky how quiet the crowd was after each number. I was the only person dancing in the front row, and the only person in the front row period at this point. Anyway, Clockwerk is a group composed of M.Cs Gold and iAMe from the Seattle Sand People crew, who are affiliated to the Northwest's Oldominion collective. They had a fairly interesting selection of dirty beats backing them, but both of the M.Cs seemed generic and didn't really hold my attention. There were one or two above average tracks, though, and I felt bad for them with the silence of everyone else in the venue.

 

Once Clockwerk wrapped things up, Onry Ozzborn came out to play some tracks from his upcoming Gigantics project. I was a little surprised since the act had been listed as "Grayskul" and the other rapper of the group, JFK, was nowhere to be seen. In previous Grayskul shows I've been to, JFK has been the superior performer, so I was a little afraid that Onry's solo set would be boring. Fortunately, as soon as Onry began performing his new material, my fears vanished. Onry's new stuff as the Gigantics seems more catchy and style-based than any of his previous work, and works very well in a live setting. His new material is also chock-full of guest spots from high-profile underground M.Cs, which resulted in one hell of a surprise in his set... Aesop Rock, one of the most prolific and highly respected M.Cs in the underground, stepped out as a surprise guest and performed a verse! This is a guy whose celebrity status makes it hard to even catch him in NYC where he lives, let alone in San Francisco unexpectedly! Aesop's presence got quite a few people to get up and cheer, though bizarrely it was still only about half the crowd and the other folks went stoic again after his verse. It's strange to me, because in my opinion Onry Ozzborn outshined Aesop Rock's brief verse with a couple of excellent standout tracks. It was great to hear such awesome new material from him... My only complaint about the set is that there were points where he played the recorded verses of guest M.Cs that weren't there, though I suppose it would have been difficult to get a sense of the tracks without listening to them. Great set... the silent crowd didn't give Onry nearly enough respect.

 

The entire crowd gathered around the stage before the Shapeshifters came out to perform, which leads me to believe that most of the people there were diehard Shapeshifter fans who weren't interested in much other hip hop. Anyway, the Shapeshifters are an L.A-based group of really unique and stylistic rappers, and they put on the best set of the evening hands down. Crazy performances from all of them. They set the scene beforehand by decorating the turntables with Christmas lights, and then Killa Santa stepped out and began waving his hands in the air. Things started getting psycho from there. To go through each of the Shapeshifter M.Cs in turn: Circus (wearing the crown) is the ringleader of the group, and came out in his pajama pants and a "What Would Yoda Do?" T-shirt. This guy is a crazed alien conspiracy theorist from another planet, and somewhat of an L.A-underground legend who's never gotten his dues. His style is completely bizarre, slow and twisted, like what a mentally deranged person might shout through the walls of an insane asylum. He didn't stand out to me amongst his fellow shifters at first, but as the set went on, I began to realize that he was improvising most of his material and making up really funny stuff by playing off of other people's lines. He also performed an hilarious track as his alter ego Kid Zelda, which involved rhyming about Jesus loving everything over the original 6-bit Super Mario Bros. theme. Moving on... Awol One is one of the best known Shapeshifters, and stands out for his unique voice and cadence, which essentially sound like a lazy fratboy stoner who's almost too hazed to spit his lines. His voice definitely grabbed the crowd with every word he rapped/spoke/drawled, and he later turned into an alternate interpretation of Santa Clawz. Life Rexall is the most traditional M.C out of the Shapeshifter crew, but he really surprised me by how passionate a live performer he is. He really got into his verses and energized the crowd, spitting his tracks with relentless ferocity. Which brings me to the two most talented M.Cs of the gang... Existereo is an absolute stylistic monster, able to flip his approach from singing to speed rapping in the blink of an eye. His rhyme schemes are often mindboggling, and his approach to every one of his verses was original. The only motor-mouthed Shapeshifter capable of rivaling his steeze is Radioinactive, who also broke into some unbelievable styles and could probably win in a contest for "most syllables spit in 60 seconds." Radioinactive even got his clarinet on later in the set. As if all this talent weren't enough, another prolific surprise guest came on stage and began rhyming with the Shapeshifters... Prince Po, of the legendary and highly influential rap group Organized Konfusion! Needless to say, I was super-excited throughout this (as was the rest of the crowd, this time around). The only downer is that Die Young, another talented member of the Shapeshifters, was AFK. That and some girl spilled beer all over my backpack. But who am I to complain, this show was amazing.

 

A couple of bonuses to top this review off... First, here's a picture of Aesop Rock and myself. Circus was on my left and I wanted to get him in the picture as well, but unfortunately whoever took it must have not been too skilled with cameras. :-p Next, here's a little footage of the Shapeshifters performing one of their tracks, "Run the Crowd" (note: may contain some language):

 

 

AND, last but not least, I decided I had to one-up my previous reviews here somehow... so I spoke with Existereo after the show, and asked if he could give the Mighty Pen a quick shout out. :-D Here's the result:

 

 

Yeeaaahhhh boooyyyeeeee, Pen's up in da houuussse! ;-)

[Patrick]

Last Wednesday (the 6th) my brother and I went to see Opeth in Lyon. I had been waiting for the concert for a long time, because they are one of my favourite bands.

 

Amplifier, a three-member band opened the show and played during a short hour. They played a drum heavy show, with quite interesting vocals, but altogether they failed to impress me. My brother, who doesn't usually listen to metal found them more melodic and slightly better than the main act.

 

Then came Opeth. For those who don't know them they play a pretty unique style of metal, where the singer alternates between death-metal like grunting and totally normal singing. Counting only the number of songs (which was eight) one could have thought that they played a short setlist, but with the length of songs the set was close to 2 hours long. Mikael Akerfeldt (the singer of the group) is very good in "crowd control", the best (and funniest) part was when he asked everyone to mosh without music, and right afterwards he told the drummer (quite unexpectedly) to do a solo.

 

All in all a very enjoyable concert, and well worth the expense.

[Wyvern]

On Wednesday evening, I went to see the Freezerburner Release Party featuring Qwel, Mestizo, Qwazaar, Secluded Journalists, Deejay Om, and Influence at the Elbo Room in San Francisco.

 

This marks my fifth time seeing the Galapagos4 collective on stage. Unfortunately, this didn't register as one of their better shows. When I last saw them in September they didn't put on a very good show either, and I'm beginning to fear that they're going to be forever performing under the shadow of the fantastic Typical Cats show they put on last June.

 

That's not to say that this show wasn't without its highlights. After Influence and DJ Om warmed up the crowd a bit, the Secluded Journalists came out to put on one of the better sets of the evening. The group is comprised of two M.Cs: Ayentee (one of the more downright honest personalities in the rap game) and Wonway. This was my first time seeing them live (they're not affiliated to G4). It was pretty funny to watch, since Wonway works at Amoeba Records in Berkeley and I've chatted with him numerous times over there while browsing. Their set felt a lot more lively and party-oriented than the evening's other sets, and I was surprised at how many women in the audience were going nuts over Ayentee's lyrics (think "screaming fanbase" for an idea of how it was). Out of the other performers, Mestizo definitely put on one of his quality sets, demonstrating a lot of charisma on the mic and treating the crowd to some

that sounded very good. My only complaint about his set is that he didn't perform "Pick Up 52s"... he needs to start doing that track more in concert, it's a killer live!

 

As for disappointments of the evening: Qwazaar's solo set was seriously lacking in passion, and ended up boring me. Qwa is an excellent M.C on record, with a really distinctive voice and flow, but he's going to need to work on his live set if he hopes to win over any new fans through his performances. Qwel, on the other hand, demonstrated the most impressive verbal acrobatics of anyone in the lineup (note: this man can spit a

), but he still didn't have a great set due to sound difficulties, skipping beats, and a time limit that cut his set short due to the show starting over an hour late.

 

A decent show overall, nothing mindblowing... the cover was only 6 dollars and came with a free bonus CD of unreleased Galapagos4 material, so that was a plus.

[Wyvern]

Last night, I went to see Subtle, Pigeon John, and Wallpaper perform at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

 

I was very excited about this lineup since both Subtle and Pigeon John have quite a reputation for their excellent live shows, and this is the first time I've seen them performing in the same lineup. Anyway, this show not only lived up to my expectations, but exceeded them. Phenomenal performances from everyone involved... it probably registers as one of the best concerts I've been to.

 

The concert's many auditory and visual delights were hinted at from the moment I viewed the set up of the stage, which featured several drum sets, numerous microphones, an MPC, a variety of keyboards and synthesizers, a saxophone, a flute, an easychair, and a cut out of a giant heart under a skull with a gold tooth. Still, I don't think there's anything that could have prepared me for the caliber of the performances to come.

 

The first act that took a stage was a group called Wallpaper, who I'd never heard of. The group was composed of a lead singer, a drummer, and what I'm guessing was a third member off-stage who was manipulating the sounds of the microphone as the lead singer sang. Wallpaper's set started off with the group's vocalist sitting back in the easychair on stage as the sounds of a ship harbor filled the venue, and then he stepped up to the microphone and kicked things off with a bizarre throwback funk-style number. The manner that the sounds of the singer's mic were distorted and manipulated was kind of reminscent of old-school disco stuff, but the live drumming and strange vocal arrangements threw it into some other odd category. What's nice is that, despite the rampant experimentation with mic sounds and drumming, the style of music worked very well in a live setting. The quality of the arrangements might have been questionable at times, but overall it was very original, danceable, and entertaining to watch. Thumbs up.

 

After a lengthy wait in which some additional music equipment was set up, Pigeon John came out and knocked the ball out of the park with a fantastic performance. He brought out a band with him, with one guy on drums and another on keyboards and guitar, and infused the crowd with the crazy energy and humor that have become his calling card. This was the first time I've seen PJ's tracks rendered live and improvised with a band, and it really seemed to breath some new life into his music while challenging him to push himself to to the limits. He performed shining renditions of a number of his best tracks, got the crowd involved with his zany humerous antics and storytelling, and even took up the guitar himself and played a comic campfire story track for the audience. The last time I saw Pigeon John with Busdriver was a memorable occasion for the intimacy of the venue, but his set in this show is probably the best I've ever seen from him. PJ declared that his objective was to kiss us and to kill us with his performance, and he did just that. Awesome set.

 

A number of interesting props were set up around the stage before Subtle came out to perform as the headliner of the evening. Their instrumental lineup consisted of Jel on drum machines, Alexander Kort on electric cello, Jordan Dalrymp on live drums and guitar, Marty Dowers on saxophone and woodwinds, and the legendary Doseone on vocals. This band has continuously amazed me with its musical freedom and lack of genre-bound limitations in recordings, but what I wasn't aware of is that a whole other element is added in their live show that can't be caught on record. The difference is that on stage, Subtle is not even limited to music. Theatre, anecdotes, poetry, and interpretive dance are all fair game in their set, and it doesn't even end there... it's as if there are no limitations to their creativity. Absolutely amazing. I don't think there's any way to adequately describe their set to you, but needless to say... it rained forks. The hype skull lost its pill brain, and Vice Magazine turned out to be a subscription to apathy. The name Dave Swan (pronounced in an English accent) shall not soon be forgotten. There are honestly too many highlights to name here. One thing's for sure though: no matter what Doseone is doing live, he's always a pleasure to watch in all his eccentric glory. He's the rare case of a person who perfected the art of M.Cing many years ago, and has since moved on to explore uncharted musical territories. He can sing, rap, and poeticize with the best of them. And the rest of the band are all talented musicians capable of following Dose's line of thought, adding a great deal of freedom that wasn't there before. Incredible live show.

 

Here's some video footage to top this review off:

 

A segment of Pigeon John performing "Identity Crisis" with his band:

 

Things got pretty crazy when Pigeon John performed "Higher":

 

Just a small example of the stuff Subtle has to offer:

 

Subtle performing the beginning of "Return of the Vein":

[Wyvern]

Last night, I went and saw P.O.S, Mac Lethal, Dessa, and Silent Army perform at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

 

I had seen P.O.S and Mac Lethal previously in concert and knew they were great performers, but the addition of Doomtree's Dessa to the lineup was definitely the factor that drove me to check this show out. The crowd at Bottom of the Hill this evening was surprisingly one of the liveliest and most supportive crowds I've ever seen in San Francisco, with plenty of dancing, chanting, and cheers. Of course, I still ended up next to probably the biggest deadbeat in the crowd, who asked me more than once if maybe I wouldn't dance so energetically while everyone else was dancing with me. The first time he asked it, I tried to give him some more room and dance with less hand motion... but the second time he asked, I straight flipped out on him with a "HELL NO!" and began dancing twice as hard. When the moshpits broke out in P.O.S's set, this guy was trying to shove me something fierce, but I think I nailed him pretty well with an elbow by the end of it. Ahhhh, released aggression.

 

Anyway, aside from that one dude, it was a great show. Things started off with a very brief set from Silent Army, a local San Francisco M.C who wasn't listed in the lineup, but who P.O.S let perform for around ten minutes. He had the energy for a good stage show, but kind of lacked the charisma and creativity that make for an entertaining rapper. His selection of beats was excellent, but they were all beats taken from established Rhymesayers acts who had already rapped over them better. Still a fairly decent ten minute intro.

 

Dessa was the next to take the stage, and she put on a great set. One of the most talented of the upcoming Doomtree crew out of Minneapolis and possibly the best female M.C currently working in hip hop, Dessa has an excellent voice and cadence. She's an awesome singer, a skilled rapper, an accomplished poet, and easy on the eyes to boot. Her set was mostly composed of new tracks since she doesn't have an official album out yet, and all of her new music struck me as very impressive. Dessa's quiet style of singing and rapping isn't necessarily the best thing for grooving to on the dancefloor, and there were moments where the crowd felt almost *too* lively for her brand of hip hop, but she threw in a few dance numbers near the end. It was great to see such a talented M.C get such a crazy amount of cheering and support from the crowd, and Dessa seemed ecstatic over the crowd's response in general. It was a great set that demonstrated Dessa's many talents... definitely an M.C to be on the lookout for.

 

Mac Lethal was next up to bat, and put on an entertaining set of his trademark humor and M.Cing skills. Some of his signature antics were there, like rapping in double time about how he got a DUI over Three 6 Mafia's "Get Fly" beat, and he also got the crowd involved with plenty of funny anecdotes and lyrics. At one point in the middle of a really upbeat song, he asked that everybody kiss the cheek of the person next to them, so I kissed a hot girl that happened to be next to me on the cheek, bwahaha. Mac didn't bring along any megaphone with him this time, but his songs and freestyles were more than enough to hold the crowd's attention. The audience was as lively as ever for his tracks, which boosted the whole thing into "officially hype" territory. Very good set.

 

P.O.S finished the evening off with a very strong set of his killer metal-influenced songs. The crowd once again really impressed me with how into it they were, as there were times when it seemed like everyone in the audience was shouting out every lyric to P.O.S's tracks. Mosh pits broke out at a few points during the set... still not really my thing (I got shoved around quite a bit), but it was nice to let some of that pent-up aggression loose. At one point in the set, Mac Lethal was called back to the stage to help P.O.S perform an outstanding version of "Gimme Gimme Gunshots," with P.O.S's heated verses really standing out in particular. With the crowd so involved, it really felt like P.O.S was giving it his all, and he occasionally surprised the crowd with a different style of rapping over familiar tracks. He also performed some brand new material, and ended the set with a series of acapellas from him and Mac Lethal. Great set for a quality show.

 

To top things off, here's a video of Dessa performing a new track of hers live:

 

 

... and here's a video of Dessa giving the Mighty Pen a little shout post-performance. Pardon the horrible lighting and California specific nature of it all. Still a quick shout out:

 

[Wyvern]

This evening, I went to see Busdriver perform a free set at Amoeba Records in Berkeley.

 

Not too much to report here since it was a quick set, but Busdriver definitely still has the energy and charisma required to put on a good show. Some of his new directions are a bit experimental in a live setting... but then, all of his directions have always been experimental. Anyway, Amoeba's Wonway introduced Busdriver to the crowd and did a little beatbox intermission while folks were waiting. After a typical half hour or so of waiting (something about hip hop shows and not starting on time...), Busdriver came out, with Caural once again backing him behind the boards on drum machines and laptop. Busdriver was celebrating the release of his new Epitaph album "Roadkillovercoat," and kicked some crazy styles as usual. Beyond the unbelievable amount of breath control and wacky cadence this guy has, Busdriver stands out for the improvisational way he does his tracks live. On many songs, he did the first verse of the track and then broke into a lengthy freestyle while Caural varied the drum rhythms in an unpredictable manner. That and it's just impossible to hate on an emcee who rhymes "neo-natzis" with "Noam Chomsky" on a dance track. Busdriver mentioned at the end of his set that he has some sort of DVD of album outtakes coming out that features "the LA riots, the Chicago riots, the New York riots, and footage from my shows."

 

My grandparents and mother both attended this in-store as well, and everyone was impressed by Busdriver's zany stylings. Good to see that all his hard work over the years is paying off... see him if you get a chance, I hear he's touring with those indie rock darlings Deerhoof these days.