sage francis and buck 65
Last night Rachael and I drove up to DC to the Rock and Roll Hotel to catch the Sage Francis show, and it kicked as much ass as I expected it to. Sage put on a great performance, and what's interesting about seeing him live is that he'll start a song normally with the full music backing him, but then all of a sudden the music will stop and he'll finish the last minute or two of the song a capella (though can you really call rapping by that name?), so it sounds more like he's reciting beat poetry more than performing a song. He'll also often have the first half of one song morph into an a capella part of another song, so you don't really hear either song in their "proper" full version. This can be pretty interesting, but also disappointing if you didn't hear the full version of a song you wanted to hear. But you definitely get something interesting and different when you see him live, so that's cool.
We arrived just in time to see Buck 65's set. I'd never heard him before but I was blown away by his performance. He's got a great sense of humor on stage and has a very interesting style of hip-hop that's been highly influenced by country music. I found myself really enjoying it, but some people in the crowd didn't care for it. One guy walked in late and asked the attractive empty headed girl and her meathead boyfriend beside us if the guy on stage was any good, and their response sounded rather noncommital, as if they didn't want to lose face for liking him if he wasn't "cool" but not wanting to look ignorant if he was a "genius". The newcomer then responded that "he's kinda weird" while making a sour face.
When we saw Buddy Wakefield get on stage with Francis and recite some of his poetry at the end of Sage's set, I was sad that we missed his opening performance. The man has an awesome stage presence and I feel like we missed something really special by arriving late. Ah well. We didn't know.
We were lucky enough to meet Sage Francis and Buck 65 and talk with them briefly after the show (one of the benefits of a small venue), and they were both extremely nice and appreciative of their fans. As far as I observed, they made the time to talk to everyone who wanted to say a little something to them.
I'd have to say at this point that Sage Francis is almost certainly my favorite rapper. I really didn't think he'd ever top A Healthy Distrust or even come close to something that awesome again, but the fact is that Human the Death Dance is every bit that album's equal and some songs even manage to surpass Distrust's scope.
I need to go to more hip-hop shows. I've seen mc chris now twice (if he counts) and Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Jean Grae, which was fucking amazing but VERY different from these small venue shows. There's a totally different energy and vibe at a hip-hop show, and I really like it.
The Rock and Roll Hotel was a suckass venue though, at least for the crowd it drew last night. It's small as shit and by the time the show was over I was really feeling a bit claustrophobic.
We arrived just in time to see Buck 65's set. I'd never heard him before but I was blown away by his performance. He's got a great sense of humor on stage and has a very interesting style of hip-hop that's been highly influenced by country music. I found myself really enjoying it, but some people in the crowd didn't care for it. One guy walked in late and asked the attractive empty headed girl and her meathead boyfriend beside us if the guy on stage was any good, and their response sounded rather noncommital, as if they didn't want to lose face for liking him if he wasn't "cool" but not wanting to look ignorant if he was a "genius". The newcomer then responded that "he's kinda weird" while making a sour face.
When we saw Buddy Wakefield get on stage with Francis and recite some of his poetry at the end of Sage's set, I was sad that we missed his opening performance. The man has an awesome stage presence and I feel like we missed something really special by arriving late. Ah well. We didn't know.
We were lucky enough to meet Sage Francis and Buck 65 and talk with them briefly after the show (one of the benefits of a small venue), and they were both extremely nice and appreciative of their fans. As far as I observed, they made the time to talk to everyone who wanted to say a little something to them.
I'd have to say at this point that Sage Francis is almost certainly my favorite rapper. I really didn't think he'd ever top A Healthy Distrust or even come close to something that awesome again, but the fact is that Human the Death Dance is every bit that album's equal and some songs even manage to surpass Distrust's scope.
I need to go to more hip-hop shows. I've seen mc chris now twice (if he counts) and Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Jean Grae, which was fucking amazing but VERY different from these small venue shows. There's a totally different energy and vibe at a hip-hop show, and I really like it.
The Rock and Roll Hotel was a suckass venue though, at least for the crowd it drew last night. It's small as shit and by the time the show was over I was really feeling a bit claustrophobic.