If you'd like to read a proper review of Sunday's Steppin' Laser concert, I recommend my friend Joel Francis' account of the proceedings. The Pitch also covered the show and offers excellent photos. My notes follow.
I wasn't terribly impressed with Lupe Fiasco's outing. I was riveted, however, by the energy emitted by his 600 fans at the Midland. If I ranked concerts by the quality of the audience, Sunday's event would almost certainly place in my year-end top five.
Much of Fiasco's set sounded uncomfortably like Linkin Park. I longed for some of the iciness contained on Fiasco's 2007 album The Cool but I kept getting reminded of "Numb" instead.
I was miffed at B.o.B. for dropping off Fiasco's tour for a day so that he could appear at Coachella. (Here's fan footage.) Just because you have a hit record with Paramore's Hayley Williams doesn't make it acceptable to blow off Kansas City. And why goof around with a small-time blogger when There Stands the Glass has been on you for years?
Consequently, I was down on Chicago hopeful S-Preme even before he started. S-Preme looked and sounded a lot like Drake. That's not a complement coming from me.
The night's real star was Les Izmore. In just thirty minutes, he led the crowd in a few rounds of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," clowned with fellow Soul Provider Dutch Newman, got serious with D/Will, freestyled and led a pared-down version of his Fela-inspired band Hearts of Darkness. Very impressive.
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I was still trying to organize a road trip to St. Louis to see Nigerian juju star King Sunny Ade when I learned that the tour had been canceled due to a tragic accident. Details are here. (Tip via R.G. and L.I.)
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I lose respect for artists who feel compelled to publicly "celebrate" April 20. Please stop embarrassing yourselves.
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A new BBC feature on Wanda Jackson made me smile.
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More than once I've attempted to get hip hop heads to share my love of jazz by playing them Gang Starr and Guru albums. It never worked. Guru died yesterday.
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Kansas City Click: Howard Iceberg, Ben Summers and Gary Cloud play Tuesday's early show at Davey's Uptown.
Phoenix headline at the Uptown Theater on Wednesday.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
2 comments:
Thanks for the kind words. If it makes you feel better, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda (also the man behind Fort Minor) produced a handful of Lupe's tracks, including "The Instrumental."
Really? Man, sometimes I impress myself.
Did you see that B.o.B hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 today?
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