I think some people take life too seriously. Whenever you feel like letting go just blast this on your iPod. I’m sure you will shake all those negative vibes off. NERD knows how to make the crowd go wow and I have had the pleasure to see these guys live. When I say amazing - I mean A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
Here’s s a vid of NERD playing live at the 2008 Bape Show.
SPAZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Diesel sure knows how to party. By now, only sherpas in Tibet escaped the gossip surrounding the extravagant event, counted off in seventeen cities around the world. At least we finally found out where all that money on over-priced jeans has gone.
On October 11th, Diesel packed a huge tent in Brooklyn with gymnasts flying through the air, fire eaters, and thousands of thirty kids “ready for the floor,” as Hot Chip would say. Just seeing M.I.A. with her lumpy hump made the experience worthwhile (especially since she’s supposed to be (cough) retired); seeing her get the football stadium sized tent into an uproar while wearing spandex above her belly bottom was even better. She’s a powerhouse. The past week, N.E.R.D. has been making rounds around Manhattan - playing at various shows and concerts- but Pharrell as usual put on his party face and crunked it up for the special Saturday show. Other highlights? Hot Chip and Chaka Khan mashed it up; Joel and Benji Madden tried not to get booed during their DJ sets; Franz Ferdinand accompanying rapper T.I. through “Live Your Life”; and half the female audience singing along to Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.”
We did have a couple complaints. Number 1, there was not nearly enough bars for the crowd (3 for 5,000 people? You do the math). The audio was tricky and it was hard to get a good view. Regardless, kudos for a clothing brand turned lifestyle brand turned music loving party host. If only other companies took notes from Diesel on how to turn up the volume and celebrate music, fashion and everything in between.
Several hundred lucky hip-hop and entertainment elite in NYC put politics asides recently, skipped the presidential debates and went to go see Nas perform with N.E.R.D, Spankrock, Dizzee Rascal, and DJs Devlin and Darko at a private party downtown, sponsored by Smirnoff and Cornerstone Promotion.
Most people stampeded past the red ropes into the ornate “Capitale” building with excitement around 9:30; there was still a line well around the block when the security announced the venue was “at capacity.” Needless to say, inside everyone nudged and edged to various bars to gulp down free, ‘experimental’ Smirnoff cocktails. (NOTE about Experimental cocktails? There was one nasty, pepper and tomato-based concoction while weird smoke waft from a stand with scented ’sensual smelling’ cocktails….not for tame palates.) Needless to say, weird concoctions or not, the alcohol did the trick- and the crowd got frisky fast…..by 10:30 people were bouncing like maniacs to Devlin and Darko’s complex DJ set…
Then came the minor problem. N.E.R.D. was slated to go on at 11 pm but the stage was still empty by 12 am. Disorganized ethos turned into disgruntled chaos. The drunk got drunker. The drunk spilled on the sober. The sober bitched about the drunk. The drunk got angry. The crowd got vicious. Remember, this was the spoiled music industry scene- where concerts and drinks often come without a price tag and everyone who is anyone thinks they are “V.I.P.” So, circa 1 am, the crowd actually started booing at the DJs! Circa 12:30 am when Spankrock and female rapper Amanda Blank came on, the crowd was still rather peeved. Regardless, the energetic Spankrock and Ms. Blank still put up a solid front, despite Amanda’s waning voice.
But it was only really when N.E.R.D. came on that the crowd really woke up. Especially as Pharrell reprimanded their attitude (”I know this is a corporate party but this is ridiculous; who are you here for !! US! ) and began to sing songs like “Lapdance,” and “She Wants To Move.” If Pharrell tells you to party, you better party!
Mid-way through the set, Dizzee Rascal joined the stage and later? the legendary Grandmaster Flash. The crowd went wild. In the early morning hours, Nas. closed out the show, provoking a group sing-along to “If I Ruled the World.” An emotional moment came while singing “Black President;” Nas gave a shout out to Barack Obama while singing “yes we can change the world.” Per those rumors of his wife Kelis and her $150,000 sex tape? Nas showed what side he’s on, shouting: “Give it up for my wife, Kelis!” Meanwhile, hip hop friends and family, including Shay, Buckshot, Sway, Kid Sister, Miss Info, and Roxy/Oxy Cottontail all looked on and grooved way past everyone’s bedtime. Bottom line: despite initial grumpy attitudes, the main players of hip hop showed the corporate kids what a hip-hop party is all about.
A few of us Killahbeez heads were invited by Livenation to check out the N.E.R.D. and Common concert, which is dubbed as “Seeing The Invincible Sounds of Summer Tour”. The tour name combines both N.E.R.D.’s album name, Seeing Sounds, along with Common’s upcoming album, The Invincible Summer. The tour stop in Vancouver was the 5th for these guys with 13 additional dates left, so be sure to check out www.livenation.com for information on the tour.
The night started off with one of Canada’s best DJs and we’ve posted about homeboy a few times here on Killahbeez, DJ Pump. He warmed the crowd up with some classic hip hop, some new joints like “Jockin’ Jay-Z”, “Swagger Like Us” as well as educating the crowd with samples like Aretha Franklin’s “One Step Ahead” and showing the crowd where “A Millie” really came from. I’ve said this numerous times, but he’s truly one of the most versatile DJs I’ve heard and can rock any kind of party. Check out his MySpace page for a list of upcoming shows, www.myspace.com/djpump.
Now onto N.E.R.D.; these dudes hit the stage around 7pm. When they came out the crowd went bananas and Pharrell acknowledged the cheers by going crazy himself and jumping straight into “Anti Matter”, which easily is one of my favorite tracks off of the latest album, Seeing Sounds. The guitar riffs and drums for the track sounded pretty damn fantastic in the venue and had me head bobbin’, nearly forgetting that I was there to take photos. So dope, it had your boy losing focus for a second. A little disappointment started to set in as I noticed that Chad Hugo wasn’t there and this marks the third straight time (he wasn’t at the Glow In the Dark and Pemberton Festival) which could possibly mean he has difficulties coming across the Canadian border. It was up to Pharrell and fellow member Shae to hold things down and that they did as they kept their frenetic pace throughout the set. Going from “Anti Matter” to “Brain” to “Killjoy”. As one of my friends in attendance said, “I love how Pharrell performs throwing his arms wildly and just rockin’ out his s**t”.
There was a lot of interaction between the crowd and Pharrell, at one point Pharrell pulled up a kid onto the stage and it was clearly visible that the kid was in shock that he was up on stage with N.E.R.D., pretty cool moment. The set continued with “Maybe” followed by “Sooner or Later”, “You Know What”, “Rockstar”. At this point the crowd seemed to be mellowing out, not so much the fans in the front as they were still wildin’, but the peoples in the back and side of the park were definitely on the mellower side. This lead to Pharrell telling the crowd “We’re here to lose our muthaf**king minds, otherwise we’re wasting our time. If you’re too cool then get the f**k out”. I thought that was hilarious and he got a good laugh out of the crowd as well. N.E.R.D. went on to finish their set with “Spaz”, “Lapdance” and “Everyone Nose”. But wait, they still weren’t done, they then went into a medley of tracks such as “Drop It Like Its Hot”, P’s verse of course, “She Wants to Move” and then dropping a sick live remix by playing The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”, while both Shae and Pharrell did their verses for “Everyone Nose”.
I have the official set list that was taped to the stage but N.E.R.D. definitely changed it up as a few of the songs were moved around and the medley they had originally planned seemed to have completely changed last second.
Next up; Common.
There were some worried faces amongst the crowd as word had gotten out that there was a hard curfew time of 10pm for the park and the stage setup time for Common was unexpectedly long. But as the clock hit shortly after 9pm, the show began with an opening skit. The stage itself was setup as a club, with a bar, along with stools, dj booth, etc. Enter DJ Dummy and the rest of the band members, shortly thereafter Common bust his way onto the stage and started the show off with “Announcement”, which is the second single from the upcoming album, The Invincible Sound, and straight into another new song called “Inhale”. Common stoped for a second for another quick skit, it was clear he wasn’t here to just rap for us; he was here to entertain the fans. As the skit ended it lead into the song “Go” which quickly turned into the track “Sex For Sugar”, another new track off of the upcoming album. At this point I was relieved hear some of these new tracks as I have to admit I was a bit worried that his whole upcoming album would follow the path of “U.M.C”, which I’m definitely not a fan of and a lot of Common fans can agree that that jam is not one of his best. As “Sex For Sugar” ended he went into another skit, in total there were 4 skits for the whole show. He had also pulled a lucky female audience member up onto the stage. He would do another new song, “Punch Love”, before going into “Come Close” and one of my favorite hip-hop songs ever, “I Used To Love H.E.R.”
I knew the aforementioned song, “U.M.C (Universal Mind Control)”, would eventually be played and wasn’t really looking forward to it. But you know what? Common killed it, the live drum tracks on this song were sick, had me head bobbin’ for sure and that wasn’t expected, so that had me amped.
Common did a great job at keeping the energy going during his set, considering he was on his own for the most part, except for a few tracks where Pharrell came out to perform along-side Common. As some may know, Kanye West isn’t producing the majority of Common’s upcoming album as he did on Common’s previous work. Pharrell has taken over the majority of production duties on this new album, hence the different sound.
He went through an abundance of tracks such as Talib Kweli’s “Get ‘Em High” (his verse), “Drive Me Wild”, “I Want You”, “Be”, “Make My Day”, “The Food”, “The People”, “The Corners”, “The Light” and finished off with a new song “Gladiator”.
But something crazy happened in between the tracks “The Corners” and “The Light” and, for sure, any true hip-hop head would have picked it up right away. The band behind Common started playing one of the most recognizable beats in hip-hop and Common continued the process by doing the first verse and that’s when I had a huge smile on my face. He was doing Nas’s song “NY State of Mind” and customized it for Vancouver, by replacing “NY” with “BC”; very impressive indeed.
I have to say this was a great hip-hop concert and the outdoor venue, Malkin Bowl, was excellent in terms of sound and thankfully the Vancouver weather held up and it was sunny the whole day. I actually have never seen either Common or N.E.R.D. live before and definitely have to say that both impressed me. I had high expectations for Common as I have grown up listening to all of his stuff, you know before he dropped the “Sense” from his name. So if this tour rolls through your city, I definitely have to recommend that you go and check it out.
Here are the remaining tour dates:
September 18 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
September 19 - Eugene, OR @ Cuthbert Amphitheater
September 20 - Berkeley, CA @ Berkeley Community Theatre
September 21 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
September 23 - Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
September 27 - Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
September 29 - Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
October 1 - Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
October 2 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
October 4 - New York, NY @ Roseland Ballroom
October 8 - Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
October 9 - Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Cafe
October 10 - Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore
Hit up Livenation for more information on tickets, venues and dates: www.livenation.com
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