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shot down, crashed
Sep. 4th, 2007 11:11 pmLabor day weekend.
Friday: set my alarm for 12:30am. Left at 1am for Sauk Mountain. Did the 20-minute drive to the trailhead at Sauk to watch the Augurids.
Saturday: Slept in a lot. Dressed up to play Clue in a swanky red room at the Metropolitan Cafe with my sister and friends. Were I more awake at the time it would've been fantastic. It was still fun though.
Sunday: Not much. Went to church. Went out to the Rogue pub in Issaquah, which was nice.
Monday: Bumbershoot. Four-fifths hip-hop acts. Excellent weather. Finally got to see Wu-Tang in the flesh, no regrets there - a very good show, for what it is.
I think Wu-Tang's genius is that to some degree I don't think they know that they're famous. I mean sure, there's the whole wutang-corp thing, the relentless merchandising, the branding. But put the clan - and with about a dozen people onstage, the moniker sticks - at a show, and they're more family than supergroup, talking over each other, wandering around the stage, arguing. I don't even think they had more than an outline of a setlist. Nothing exemplifies the duality of this group, and in some ways hip-hop as a whole, like the way this groundbreaking group of musicians behaves when nobody is around to tell them "no" anymore. They haven't refined their sound, their show, their attitudes, or their behavior one bit. They just keep making bigger music and bigger parties, simply because they have the money to do so.
And I respect that, because so many rappers failed that test, and abandoned everything that made them great in an effort to be successful. But maybe it's my suburban background, but I have this nagging feeling that when you make it that big, you owe me something. Make that show quality, make that record classic, make that tour legendary. Just execute. I should not be impressed that you even managed to show up. You can do better, and my years of loyalty should have earned that by now.
I wonder GN'R fans feel this way. They still go to the shows though, just like I went to this one, and am happy with it, because we hate the things we love.
Also worth mentioning was Lyrics Born, who gave an incredibly polished funk-flavored show. The guy's obviously spent the last 5 years touring constantly and making his show groove like no other. He did a show with New Orleans funk stars Galactic once, which should tell you something about what the show is like.
Anyway this came as a surprise to me, as Later That Day is not that strongly funk-influenced. This is not a complaint.
No, a complaint is that the sound sucked. It was most apparent during Lupe Fiasco's set, when he did "Kick, Push". That fantastic sidewalk-click beat and horn surge, so clear and lovely when performed with live strings last year during Kanye's set, was spun off the vinyl as BOOM-WHACK-B-B-BM-WHACK. Poor Lyrics Born had his remarkable lyrics reduced to a slur by excessive reverb. RZA's paranoid strings were drowned out in nostril-rattling basslines. I'm all for wrath-of-God bass power, but more loud is not necessarily the same as more good in every case.
But for $25 it was a damn good day with a lot of damn good music, and I couldn't be happier that I went. Today I felt like complete trash, but I have space for it, and tomorrow will be a good celebration.
I want to keep writing about the end of summer, because it is so sudden, and I am so unready. I had hoped that when I found out whether we were staying in the house I would feel more settled and desirous of organizing it and continuing to nest. Hasn't really happened yet.
Someday soon.
Friday: set my alarm for 12:30am. Left at 1am for Sauk Mountain. Did the 20-minute drive to the trailhead at Sauk to watch the Augurids.
Saturday: Slept in a lot. Dressed up to play Clue in a swanky red room at the Metropolitan Cafe with my sister and friends. Were I more awake at the time it would've been fantastic. It was still fun though.
Sunday: Not much. Went to church. Went out to the Rogue pub in Issaquah, which was nice.
Monday: Bumbershoot. Four-fifths hip-hop acts. Excellent weather. Finally got to see Wu-Tang in the flesh, no regrets there - a very good show, for what it is.
I think Wu-Tang's genius is that to some degree I don't think they know that they're famous. I mean sure, there's the whole wutang-corp thing, the relentless merchandising, the branding. But put the clan - and with about a dozen people onstage, the moniker sticks - at a show, and they're more family than supergroup, talking over each other, wandering around the stage, arguing. I don't even think they had more than an outline of a setlist. Nothing exemplifies the duality of this group, and in some ways hip-hop as a whole, like the way this groundbreaking group of musicians behaves when nobody is around to tell them "no" anymore. They haven't refined their sound, their show, their attitudes, or their behavior one bit. They just keep making bigger music and bigger parties, simply because they have the money to do so.
And I respect that, because so many rappers failed that test, and abandoned everything that made them great in an effort to be successful. But maybe it's my suburban background, but I have this nagging feeling that when you make it that big, you owe me something. Make that show quality, make that record classic, make that tour legendary. Just execute. I should not be impressed that you even managed to show up. You can do better, and my years of loyalty should have earned that by now. I wonder GN'R fans feel this way. They still go to the shows though, just like I went to this one, and am happy with it, because we hate the things we love.
Also worth mentioning was Lyrics Born, who gave an incredibly polished funk-flavored show. The guy's obviously spent the last 5 years touring constantly and making his show groove like no other. He did a show with New Orleans funk stars Galactic once, which should tell you something about what the show is like. Anyway this came as a surprise to me, as Later That Day is not that strongly funk-influenced. This is not a complaint.
No, a complaint is that the sound sucked. It was most apparent during Lupe Fiasco's set, when he did "Kick, Push". That fantastic sidewalk-click beat and horn surge, so clear and lovely when performed with live strings last year during Kanye's set, was spun off the vinyl as BOOM-WHACK-B-B-BM-WHACK. Poor Lyrics Born had his remarkable lyrics reduced to a slur by excessive reverb. RZA's paranoid strings were drowned out in nostril-rattling basslines. I'm all for wrath-of-God bass power, but more loud is not necessarily the same as more good in every case. But for $25 it was a damn good day with a lot of damn good music, and I couldn't be happier that I went. Today I felt like complete trash, but I have space for it, and tomorrow will be a good celebration.
I want to keep writing about the end of summer, because it is so sudden, and I am so unready. I had hoped that when I found out whether we were staying in the house I would feel more settled and desirous of organizing it and continuing to nest. Hasn't really happened yet.
Someday soon.
