Seattle Subsonic

Blackalicious & STS9

August 25th, 2008

Don’t you just love it when you see some bands you know absolutely nothing about and you wind up having a great time?

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I was excited to see Blackalicious and Sound Tribe Sector 9 at Marymoor Park only because it was a beautiful day and listening to music outside sounded downright nifty! At the time I knew nothing about either band, but if I didn’t enjoy the music, well, at least I would be outside. I can’t tell you how bummed I was to find out the show had been cancelled at Marymoor at moved to The Showbox. I have nothing against the Showbox, I think it’s one of the best venues on the West Coast, but dang it, I wanted to be outside! I was half hoping my friend would call to inform me that she had sold the tickets and we wouldn’t be going, the idea of sweating in the Showbox just didn’t sound all that appealing, especially since I knew nothing about the two bands. Also, I’ve never gone out of my way to see hip-hop shows, but I figured if there was an opportunity to see some new music, what the hell.

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We got there a bit early and were able to score some chairs and a table, so at least we wouldn’t be crammed against the 18 and over crowd on the floor. We just hung out and talked while the DJ & bass player duo Conspirator warmed the crowd up with some tunes and riffs. As with most shows, the crowd was fairly sparse at the beginning, but the floor quickly filled up when the first set finished.

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The cool thing about Blackalicious was how they built their set around a steady escalation of rhythm and rhymes. Front man Gift of Gab took the stage almost as he if he was in a Suge Knight look alike contest, but the irony was completely forgotten as he treated the crowd to a rhyme that sounded like a car accelerating from 5mph all the way to 100mph in about 4 minutes! DJ Chief of Xcel handled the background just as he should have, and kept the crowd moving for the entire 50 minute set. It was good to see a group perform progressive songs with politically charged lyrics, the only regret I have is that I couldn’t really understand them, as he raps with the speed of that guy from the old Micro Machines commercials. Oh well, how else to you keep a crowd moving?

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My friend told me that she bought tickets for Blackalicious, so I didn’t even know that STS9 was even going to be there, let alone headline. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a purely instrumental group, so seeing these guys was a real treat. They kept the crowd pleased through their groove-jam style of performance that didn’t really involve hypnotic trance techniques. Heavy on the rhythm with every instrument given it’s due. It was also really cool to see a jam band where they don’t just stay planted on one spot playing their instruments, which made it easy to get into.

I’m always pleased when I find new bands to listen to, although I still think it would have been cooler to groove to these guys underneath the stars instead of the plasterboard ceiling of The Showbox. I’m going to check out iTunes and sample some of the tracks of these two bands; I just may want to listen to them when I go running!