last nite hack-man and me rolled out to the house of blues on sunset to catch chest rockwell and nathaniel merriweather aka the handsome boy modeling school. if you haven't scored the latest from prince paul and dan the automater, waste not time and want not tasty sounds, for the release is sick. but the performance itself was a bit lacking.
just as a standard practice, i don't bail concerts before the last note has been played. the only time in recent memory i remember departing early was from a show with etta james, not because the show was lame but because etta had me and my guest a bit.. erm.. enthusiastic and in need of some privacy. etta has that effect on me.
the definitive high point of the show last night was the opening act. straight out of vancouver and on the astralwerks label is the vocalist, lyricist, poet, keyboardist k-os. if you haven't heard the joyful rebellion, you need to feel the realness. joined by a full band a la the legendary two-one-fifth, k-os proved that he can rock a live show as well as improve my mood when stuck in the mud that is LA traffic. hack-man hollered at the bassist and found out that the band had been playing together for the last 12 years. no wonder they sounded so tight.
i would've paid the price of admission to see k-os alone so it struck me as mad short-sighted when there wasn't any opening acts listed on the billing. another knock against whoever organized the tour is the simple acknowledgement that you can't have a weak ensemble (which is what the handsome boys amounted to) follow the cohesive unit that k-os brought.
i was really hoping that one of the handsome guests was musician/surfer/surf flick director jack johnson (check out the link and watch the video for sitting, waiting, wanting) because jack was in LA as recent as the weekend before last. but all they did was flash a few surf clips on the display screen while the track played from their ibooks. lame.
the handsome guests that i stuck around to see were casual and okio from the hiero crew and dres from black sheep. dres was intro'd by doing that old skool jawns 'this or that' which is undeniably one of those party starters but i thought it was pretty fuckin contrived. any true hoodied head a) knows who dres is and b) knows that their second album 'nonfiction' is an intellectual and lyrical superior to their commercial hit 'wolf in sheep's clothing.'
don't get me wrong. i'm glad i went to the show but it wasn't because of the headliners. in hindsight, i would've shown up earlier (me and hack-man missed the first few songs of the opening set) and most likely left earlier in search of a cheaper place to buy my coronas and think about how fuckin bonus it was to hear k-os.
you can try to know why but you can't intervene.
just as a standard practice, i don't bail concerts before the last note has been played. the only time in recent memory i remember departing early was from a show with etta james, not because the show was lame but because etta had me and my guest a bit.. erm.. enthusiastic and in need of some privacy. etta has that effect on me.
the definitive high point of the show last night was the opening act. straight out of vancouver and on the astralwerks label is the vocalist, lyricist, poet, keyboardist k-os. if you haven't heard the joyful rebellion, you need to feel the realness. joined by a full band a la the legendary two-one-fifth, k-os proved that he can rock a live show as well as improve my mood when stuck in the mud that is LA traffic. hack-man hollered at the bassist and found out that the band had been playing together for the last 12 years. no wonder they sounded so tight.
i would've paid the price of admission to see k-os alone so it struck me as mad short-sighted when there wasn't any opening acts listed on the billing. another knock against whoever organized the tour is the simple acknowledgement that you can't have a weak ensemble (which is what the handsome boys amounted to) follow the cohesive unit that k-os brought.
i was really hoping that one of the handsome guests was musician/surfer/surf flick director jack johnson (check out the link and watch the video for sitting, waiting, wanting) because jack was in LA as recent as the weekend before last. but all they did was flash a few surf clips on the display screen while the track played from their ibooks. lame.
the handsome guests that i stuck around to see were casual and okio from the hiero crew and dres from black sheep. dres was intro'd by doing that old skool jawns 'this or that' which is undeniably one of those party starters but i thought it was pretty fuckin contrived. any true hoodied head a) knows who dres is and b) knows that their second album 'nonfiction' is an intellectual and lyrical superior to their commercial hit 'wolf in sheep's clothing.'
don't get me wrong. i'm glad i went to the show but it wasn't because of the headliners. in hindsight, i would've shown up earlier (me and hack-man missed the first few songs of the opening set) and most likely left earlier in search of a cheaper place to buy my coronas and think about how fuckin bonus it was to hear k-os.
you can try to know why but you can't intervene.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
that shit is hott.