you gotta you gotta you gotta....



For some reason I decided to go to the Digable Planets show last night.

Flyer/website/ticket said doors would open at 6, but it wound up being more like 9! I took light-rail and decided to fly solo to the show (since none of the rest of my "money-wise" (aka "cheap bastid") friends wanted to shell out the $25 dollars to see DPs. I arrived at around 6:45 or so figuring it was one of those early gigs that would be over in time to make room for the meat market dance club afterwards, but I wound up having to wait around for HOURS! To waste time, I called some friends to chat, went to Naked Lounge and got a friggin amazing mocha (I rarely get anything but plain old coffee, but when I go there I cant resist, since they actually seem to put effort into both taste and presentation.) 7:30 finally rolled around, which was the time the security dude I talked to said they'd let us in...by 8 I figured he lied to me. I decided to get a beer at icon to kill some more time, but they didn't have anything decent, so I decided "hey..I paid $25 for this ticket, might as well be a high-roller and order some high-quality scotch to top it off". I figured I could kill some time sippin' on scotch. I could really only afford one or two, so I went back outside by 8:20 or so and waited around for at least a half hour longer. And to think, I left work early to attend this show!

They finally started letting everyone in, and each male that entered the building was subjected to the most thorough pat down I had ever experienced. The guy who searched me made me face away from him, put my hands behind my head, and proceeded to pat me down and search every pocket (while yelling "keep your hands up!!! keep your hands up!!!"). Next time I go to a rap concert and feel like shooting someone, I'll be sure to bring Niki along and have her pack heat for me.

A couple wack-ass DJs opened, one whom was DJ DNA. he actually played some decent classic hip-hop joints, but failed to get the crowd moving with his unintelligible banter. The Cuf (or some related crew) played next. They seemed to have some decent beats/flows, but the sound system whackified them. After enduring about a 45+ minute set of underwater beats and rapping, Digable was set to take stage.

They opened with the first song from "Blow Out Comb" and it was a good thing Ladybug kicks the first verse on that one, since Butterfly's mic wasn't even turned on! When his verse came, he had to borrow L's mic. By the second song, all three mics/MCs could be heard.

They all looked as good as ever. Butterfly was sporting that R. Kelly, corn-row, head band, tank top, baggy cargo-pants look. Doodlebug was just dressed like a normal hip-hop dude, and Ladybug was dressed almost exactly how Niki's sister Dominica dresses, and from afar could easily be her bizzaro twin.

The sound guy at Empire should be fired. All the beats from DPs DJ still sounded underwater, but luckily they had a drummer to subsidize some songs (and a bass and keyboard player for some others).

They did all the hits (off the top of my head I can remember: "Nickel Bags", "Where I'm From", "It's Good to Be Here"..the one that goes "do what ya feel..do what ya feel...if it's real" which was a bummer, since the amazing baseline from that song was completely inaudible due to lousy EQ on the soundboard, "9th wonder", "Jettin'" and of course "Rebirth of Slick"...saved that for very last).

Overall..decent show, but definitely not worth the $25 ticket price. 10 dollars less and I wouldn't have felt so ripped off.