Political Animals. May 4th, 2012

     Typically when this much time has passed after a show I consider writing about it a lost cause. However I liked Political Animals a lot and have been wanting to plug them on my blog for a while. Not that this blog has high traffic and it will benefit them at all, but it's the thought that counts, or so I think.

     Less than two weeks before this show Connect( of Fortified PhonetX) hit me up about trying to help out a Connecticut hip hop band.  Being the prematurely jaded 24 year old that I am, I offered little to no help with finding a venue. Booking is stressful, and without proper time to promote getting a decent amount of gas money for the touring act, above a rental fee is near impossible.  Luckily Connect showed more chivalry than I did, and found a venue(The Smiling Moose) that was willing to do a free day show and give the acts a percentage of bar sales. This was good because it was low risk for us "promoters," but it was also going to be low reward for the touring act, unless I got in full lush mode and used my self destructive drinking habits to support Political Animals' tour.
     Finally, I thought to myself, I'm drinking for a cause and not just because. I had the noble plans of drinking only high end beers, not only support the touring act, but also to trick everyone at the show that I was a baller. However when I showed up and there was a game day special I found myself double fisting dollar beers at the bar as quickly as possible to get my buzz going before the special was up and the sun was down. And I did so ef ficiently, buying beers upon beers in advance for myself to stock up for after the special. Completely disregarding my initial plan of using my alcoholism to financially support the touring band as much as possible.

     Luckily I played first before my buzz completely settled in and I said too many embarrassing things on stage. Next was Proseed who always kills it, and subsequently is also always sober for his sets. Political Animals played third and brought to the table their live band and conventional boom bap style. Positive songs about elevating hip hop instead of getting diluted by mass media rappers, and also elevating and being positive about yourself. I dug it. I also dug how humbled they were, and how honored they were that Connect would help them out so last minute. Last was Fortified PhonetX who always kill it. All this before 9pm, it's pretty rad to see what can be done by artists when they respect each others music enough to help them out. Get drunk, play a show, get paid, all before turning into a pumpkin.
Stillborn Identity
Proseed
Political Animals(download their free ep)
Fortified PhonetX
@ The Smiling Moose. May 4th, 2012

Dinosaur Burps 9/7/12 Charleston, WV

Q-How do you know the tooth-brush was invented in West Virginia?
A-Because if it was invented anywhere else it would be called the teeth-brush!
            -As told by Baker.

     People in Charlestown, West Virginia are mutant-ly huge. I'm kind of a tall guy myself, standing at 6"1', but there wasn't one person at the venue I would dare size up in my right mind. Baker(also over 6 foot tall) and I were of the smallest guys at the venue, even if you combined both of our mass together we wouldn't stand a snow flakes chances in hell against these men, or even some of the women. Fortunately for us, once we got beyond the locals hardened shells, everyone was pretty jolly and not quite what we expected out of the people at a hip hop show in Wild and wonderful West Virginia.
     B. Rude, of Dinosaur Burps(and formerly of Rabble Rousers) had been someone whose name traveled further than he did. All along the East Coast and Mid-West I had been hearing his name for years now. Even in Pittsburgh he dared to challenge my fan-base of degenerate skateboarders with Thrasher tattoos who occasionally listen to hip hop, all without often leaving his humble home of West Virginia. B. Rude seemingly sticks to mostly shows in Charlestown and Huntington these days. So we knew we had to play with him at his home turf to get the full effect.

     Neither Baker or I had played anywhere in West Virginia, or even knew many people that had. On top of that, of the few people we knew(who mostly played in Morgantown) most had bad experiences. When I asked JT(Greenlander) how his first WV show with PT Burnem and MC Homeless went the only advice he left me with was, "Don't let some guy named 'Sketch' who lives in a van in the Wal-Mart parking lot book you a show." So needless to say my tour mate and I were not only a little skeptic about the show beforehand, we became even more so stressed when we showed up to a metal venue speckled in attendance with grizzly men who had a very hard pressed, unconventional hip hop attendee, appearance.
     The night ran smoother than we could have predicted. The venue was stocked with a receptive crowd that kept growing in size and morale as the night progressed. And our stereotype of West Virginians was crushed as we rocked our songs to an audience with a full set of teeth and high school diplomas(not in hand necessarily, but after talking to them you could tell they were more educated than the embedded stereotype led us to believe).

     We got hosted for the night by one of B. Rudes friends(I forget his name, sorry), who was by coincidence one of the only other person at the venue in our weight class. He offered us his bed to share, and looking around at the hardwood floor that resembled our sleeping arrangements of the prior night in Columbus we shamelessly accepted. Our host stood in the doorway of the room as a magpie would, half coning us to sleep half telling us not to worry about his flee infested cat whose asshole has a ring of flee eggs surrounding it because flees really weren't to big of a deal and that he had them all his life and wasn't bothered by it, he told us what drugs he has dabbled in, he told us of his three-piece band, his upcoming move to Thailand, and lastly he told us how to flush his makeshift toilet in case nature called, all while we drifted in and out of consciousness. In the morning I had to take a shit and accidentally left him with a floater because I couldn't recall his instructions. If we had stayed with any of the other behemoth men who could have crushed me like one of the peanuts in my crap you can bet your ass I would have done all I could not to leave any evidence in their bowl behind. But in this case, I liked my odds, and left some presents behind without much effort.

Poetic
Baker
Stillborn Identity
Dinosaur Burps
@ The Blue Parrot Friday September 7th, 2012