Hell's Winter is another apocalypse title...
I went to a concert with Aaron on Saturday night. Single most last-minute concert i've ever gotten to. Found out about it at 7:05pm, was at Slim's by 9pm. Interesting because I don't think Aaron goes to hiphop shows or listens to rap. But he said he was "into new things".
It was mostly Cage's show to promote Hell's Winter, which I bought, and which is magnifique. (I did the sit and listen to all the songs thing last night, and never felt the urge to press skip; sign of a great album.) 'Twas: Cage, El-P, Yakballs, & Aesop Rock plus a local east bay cat who performs like an Eyedea apprentice, which is cool. if you're gonna be inspired, be inspired by somebody good!
From far off, I thought the opening dude kinda resembled my friend Matt, which is also what I thought when I saw Eyedea live. This guy had the energy to pull of a one man show too. At certain parts of any given song, you could just see adrenaline surging through him as he makes sure you hear what's going down. The kinda rapping that makes you think he really is doing it to get shit off his chest as much as, or even moreso than to entertain. Too bad i can't remember his name. I kept waiting for him to introduce himself. He was the opening act, so he should've done so more than once. I think it was something with the initials "S.A."
Slim's drops a moviescreen and shows random video of jazz and stuff. On the house music between sets, I recognize some Eyedea & Abilities songs, a Talib Kweli song, Atmosphere a few times (I overhear some guys talking about Atmosphere will be in town next month, with Blueprint!!).
Then it was Yakballs, the Freak Show Veteran, he did a short set, and I thought "this guy's hair is funnylooking". He was pretty cool. This is the third time I've seen him.
After another break with the moviescreen, Cage came out. You know the lead singer from Jimmy Eat World? Cage goes to the same barber!! Anyway, he did some songs from Hell's Winter, starting with "Too Heavy for Cherubs" and some others that I think I recognized from the last Aesop show I was at. Then, he headed off stage and the DJ Big Wiz started spinning military orders from "Winners Take All" so of course Aesop Rock came out and did "Winners Take All" and the first verse of "Holy Smokes". We all kept screaming "STRAP ON A HELMET AND START SHOOTING!!!!" at him. Then he asked us if we saw The Life Aquatic and some other movie, and asked us what they had in common (the audience, who probably mostly knew what was coming, exclaimed "Bill Murry!") Then Cage did his Fuck Bill Murry song (i don't remember the name yet, but it's not about "the actor, but the deadbeat dad that smacked her..." his junkieass dad). Then he did "Good Morning" and El-P came out to sing the hook. El-P did some of his own songs too. "Tuned Mass Damper" got the crowd vertical. From the concerts I've been to, it's pretty hard to get a hiphop crowd to even move their arms, let alone lift off the ground in ecstatic bouncing. He also did "Deep Space 9mm", always fun when we can sing along. Apparently, everyone in the crowd knew that El-P "WOULD RATHER BE MOUTHFUCKED BY NAZIS UNCONSCIOUS" than signed to Rawkus Records. Later on as a treat for the SF crowd, he did a Company Flow song. (I still need to download some coflow). Then they set up chairs like a car, Aesop said it was the company car, and I started screaming out "Delorean" but they did some other song that had something to do with driving.
Cage did a few more songs at some point I heard what I later realized was "Scenester", and "The Subtle Art of the Breakup Song", El-P might've done a couple more, and then it was done. Too soon. This was a San Francisco Crowd, so we demanded an encore, but i don't think we got a regular chant going. Some people were screaming "AGENT ORANGE!" some were screaming for El-P, some for Aesop (personally I was screaming "OXYGEN!" as always). Then BigWiz came out and asked if we all liked Cage, Cage came and did one more song. Then, the four of them: Cage, El-P, Yakbidallz and Aes Rizzle lined up and did "Left it to Us" which is the Weathermen track from Cage's album. "i write left shit with my right, spit on the mic twice...".
All in all, a magnificent concert. Perfectly worth the over an hour wait for the owl L after we got out.
It was mostly Cage's show to promote Hell's Winter, which I bought, and which is magnifique. (I did the sit and listen to all the songs thing last night, and never felt the urge to press skip; sign of a great album.) 'Twas: Cage, El-P, Yakballs, & Aesop Rock plus a local east bay cat who performs like an Eyedea apprentice, which is cool. if you're gonna be inspired, be inspired by somebody good!
From far off, I thought the opening dude kinda resembled my friend Matt, which is also what I thought when I saw Eyedea live. This guy had the energy to pull of a one man show too. At certain parts of any given song, you could just see adrenaline surging through him as he makes sure you hear what's going down. The kinda rapping that makes you think he really is doing it to get shit off his chest as much as, or even moreso than to entertain. Too bad i can't remember his name. I kept waiting for him to introduce himself. He was the opening act, so he should've done so more than once. I think it was something with the initials "S.A."
Slim's drops a moviescreen and shows random video of jazz and stuff. On the house music between sets, I recognize some Eyedea & Abilities songs, a Talib Kweli song, Atmosphere a few times (I overhear some guys talking about Atmosphere will be in town next month, with Blueprint!!).
Then it was Yakballs, the Freak Show Veteran, he did a short set, and I thought "this guy's hair is funnylooking". He was pretty cool. This is the third time I've seen him.
After another break with the moviescreen, Cage came out. You know the lead singer from Jimmy Eat World? Cage goes to the same barber!! Anyway, he did some songs from Hell's Winter, starting with "Too Heavy for Cherubs" and some others that I think I recognized from the last Aesop show I was at. Then, he headed off stage and the DJ Big Wiz started spinning military orders from "Winners Take All" so of course Aesop Rock came out and did "Winners Take All" and the first verse of "Holy Smokes". We all kept screaming "STRAP ON A HELMET AND START SHOOTING!!!!" at him. Then he asked us if we saw The Life Aquatic and some other movie, and asked us what they had in common (the audience, who probably mostly knew what was coming, exclaimed "Bill Murry!") Then Cage did his Fuck Bill Murry song (i don't remember the name yet, but it's not about "the actor, but the deadbeat dad that smacked her..." his junkieass dad). Then he did "Good Morning" and El-P came out to sing the hook. El-P did some of his own songs too. "Tuned Mass Damper" got the crowd vertical. From the concerts I've been to, it's pretty hard to get a hiphop crowd to even move their arms, let alone lift off the ground in ecstatic bouncing. He also did "Deep Space 9mm", always fun when we can sing along. Apparently, everyone in the crowd knew that El-P "WOULD RATHER BE MOUTHFUCKED BY NAZIS UNCONSCIOUS" than signed to Rawkus Records. Later on as a treat for the SF crowd, he did a Company Flow song. (I still need to download some coflow). Then they set up chairs like a car, Aesop said it was the company car, and I started screaming out "Delorean" but they did some other song that had something to do with driving.
Cage did a few more songs at some point I heard what I later realized was "Scenester", and "The Subtle Art of the Breakup Song", El-P might've done a couple more, and then it was done. Too soon. This was a San Francisco Crowd, so we demanded an encore, but i don't think we got a regular chant going. Some people were screaming "AGENT ORANGE!" some were screaming for El-P, some for Aesop (personally I was screaming "OXYGEN!" as always). Then BigWiz came out and asked if we all liked Cage, Cage came and did one more song. Then, the four of them: Cage, El-P, Yakbidallz and Aes Rizzle lined up and did "Left it to Us" which is the Weathermen track from Cage's album. "i write left shit with my right, spit on the mic twice...".
All in all, a magnificent concert. Perfectly worth the over an hour wait for the owl L after we got out.