ANGER MANAGEMENT AND MORE
you want my towel? you can't handle my towel!
Not only do I not get out for live shows much at all, but that goes gazilliony true for arena-sized shows. Prior to attending the Anger Management Show in San Jose the other week, the last rap show of comparable size was back when the Beastie Boys were on the Hello Nasty tour and came through the Oakland Coliseum, back around 1997 or so. As much of a spectacle as that was, it was like a low budget baby birthday party compared to Anger Management (AM) which is, by far, the most elaborate rap concert I've seen yet. I was sent there to review the show for XXL. A few observations and perspectives:
- 1. Since moving to the Bay Area in 1990, I've lived in Berkeley, North Oakland, and now, the Sunset. As anyone who is familiar with these neighborhoods can tell you, they might be "diverse" in terms of not being racially monolithic, but in many other ways, they're all very much homogenous, especially when it comes to the kind of white people you see. In S.F., for example, the city is overrun by either hipster or hippies (I'm generalizing but...not really).
Going to San Jose for this show reminded me that there's a much bigger variety of white folk outside of the immediate, urban Bay Area. Like guys who look like Fred Durst and women who dress like Britney Spears, or at least listen to either artist. Yes, I realize, I live a sheltered life in my little island, separated from the mainland/stream of suburbia U.S.A. (This is not coincidental).
2. Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz were first up - I walked in somewhere around the middle of their set. There was a giant caricature of Jon in the back, his big head wagging, complete with shades and gold fronts. To the left of this crunktacular puppet was the pimp cup and I'm pretty sure there were some 22s on the left (but I couldn't quite tell from where we were sitting). Highlights: Pitbull came on stage for a few songs and had what sounded like the whole audience chanting along with him in Spanish during his choruses. Lowlights: Jon and the Boyz performed the Yin Yang Twins' "Wait," and one of the hypemen had his belt unbuckled and was swinging the loose end like it was his penis. Not a good look.
3. Once Jon was done and G-Unit's set prep began, they killed time by running a series of G-Unit ads and infommercials on the video monitors flanking the stage. There were plugs for Tony Yayo's new album, Olivia's new album, the G-Unit Reebok line, G-Unit wristwatches, G-Unit clothing, G-Unit tax preparation services, G-Unit annuity funds, you name it.
4. The G-Unit set was clearly inspired by Escape From New York and was easily the most eye-catching of the three. 50 didn't step to stage - he leaped from the second floor ledge of the backdrop, help up by wires, with a full pyrotechnic display exploding behind him. In fact, the whole f---in' evening, they'd set off these mega-loud explosions, apparently to destroy whatever was left from our ear drums from all the deafening music. My man Todd Inoue compared it to the firecracker scene from Boogie Nights.
5. If you were a G-Unit fan, then this was your show to go to. Not only was Fiddy performing, but so did Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Tony Yayo, Olivia plus recent signees like Mobb Deep and M.O.P.
5a. During Young Buck's performance, he had a long monologue about enjoying some San Jose purple and he exhorted for the rest of the audience to light 'em up, which this guy behind us did. This young dude and his girlfriend next to us asked if they could take a hit, which they did...only to have security bear down on them a minute later and kick them out. Oops.
5b. Time has not treated either Prodigy or Havoc well. Those dudes look like 28 going on 58.
6. The problem with the G-Unit set is that it ran at least 15-20 minutes too long and just couldn't sustain consistent audience interest with the seven or so different folks performing. 50 tried to bring things back at the end with a medley of songs from the first album but by then, it felt too little, too late.
7. It didn't help things that Eminem's set took at least an hour to set up and once unveiled, it wasn't particularly impressive. It was a series of doors mounted on top of a projection screen. Em had some silly video footage of him pretending to be contemplating suicide which was incredibly contrived, but I admit, he knows how to work a crowd, stepping to stage rapping "Evil Deeds" and connecting with the audience in a direct, intimate way that I never felt like 50 did. 50 is a preener and a very good one at that but Em has a subtler intensity.
8. Then again, in addressing the rumors about his retirement, Em decided to pull his pants down, give the crowd a full shot of his Emin-ass, and then tell folks to, "get their facts right" or something to that effect. The ladies loved it. Luckily, a stage speaker blocked my view of the pale moon.
9. Em mostly performed songs off the new album, which makes sense except for the fact that Encore was filled with really slow, monotonous beats (think "Mosh") which might work once or twice, but building a concert set of songs around them means just hitting the audience with the same, lumbering pace. You could actually feel how listless the audience was after a while, especially as Eminem's set dragged over an hour long. It's very hard to get all that hyped up for "Puke."
10. As for D12, Stat Quo and Obie Trice, after the G-Unit revue, Em's sidekicks couldn't remotely muster the same excitement, though Bizarre is nothing if not entertaining, coming to stage with pink-dyed hair and a shag, pink vest with a poodle on it. By the end of Em's set, the crowd was just plain tired but the saving grace was Em's encore - "Lose Yourself" - which was the perfect way to close by bringing the audience's energy level all the way back. All that was left was a cloud of exploding glitter and the evening was over.
ELSEWHERE
MUSIC
- The Game gets invited to rap for Prince Harry, boasts about showing the Queen his "royal jewels."
- Anotated discography of New Orleans' Eddie Bo, complete with label scans. Scary complete.
- Canadian story on the digital DJing which draws some strange conclusions, including: "I don't think the clubbers should have to go see the DJ. The DJ should come see the clubbers." Uh, if that works for you, fine...but most of the DJs I know (myself) included, would love to have greater barriers between us and obnoxious, drunk club-goers who keep requesting the same song 20 times over.
- I interviewed Dante Ross for Wax Poetics and in there, he basically called the rap group H2O (who he once produced for) "weak." H2O barks back at Dante.
- Hua Hsu on R. Kelly. To wit: "Whereas decorum compels romantic singers to convey their feelings using puffed up terms like "lust" or "desire," Kelly comes across as a plain and desperately horny man."
- Blog alert: The Bay Finta Blow by Oliver Monday who is not actually, you know, me. I'm Oliver Thursday, thank you very much.
- "Kanye urges rock fans to buy his records", since, like, he likes Jon Mayer and what not. Ever the humblest: "If you have a White Stripes album or a Franz Ferdinand album, you should also have a Kanye West album," says West.
- A story about bloggers talking about blogging and bloggers. Better known as a clusterf---. What is truly entertaining about this article - which includes many of Poplicks' favorite bloggerati - is how self-depricating bloggers are about blogging even though they still blog. Example, here's Village Voice music blogger Nick Sylvester: "Everywhere I looked, some blogger was talking to another blogger, probably about sweet new blogs, pointing out that the DJ was a blogger himself. If you screamed ‘Free wireless! Over here!’ my guess is half the room would have emptied out, just to blog about finding free wireless."
- Everyone's on the hunt for the next iPod killer.
<< Home