Category Archives: Follow-Up

Diplo x2

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You haven’t yet heard from me, but I’m around.  Hopefully I’ll get my act together and start writing for this damn blog (for which I was an advocate).

To recap the weekend would be a task far too great for a first-time blogger, so I am taking a baby step, one in the direction of elaborating on Saturday night, The Diplo show at Der Rathskeller. What a show.  I mean, aside from the abundance of sweaty chest bumps and hundreds of rancid grinding freshmen, the show was a huge success; yeah totally massive success (Thank you Matt Forrest (repeat x3)…future Music Committee Director).  Not only was the Rath packed, but Diplo was awe-inspiring.   I didn’t cry, but I wanted to. I danced instead.

A friend and I watched from the back of the stage and couldn’t help but giggle and reminisce of high school dances past, while watching the “train wreck” that is a drunken boy trying to molest his wobbly enthusiastic dance partner, from behind.  So good . Like really, a new favorite moment of 2k9. 

Next, after the show ended (all too soon), about 4,500 (40) music committee members, made their way over to some soggy basement for an afterparty (which Diplo was kind enough to play at, again, thank god) and danced their asses off until the wee hours of the morning.  If you weren’t there, I’m pointing a finger at you and laughing right now. And if you are reading this to get a better picture of the mayhem that was the basement….(Jealous? That could have been you). 


Anyway, it truly was a fantastic Saturday.  That’s all I can handle right now. But I’ll be back. 

Come out to Mason Jennings and/or U-N-I this upcoming Friday and U-Melt Saturday. Don’t forget.

 

For your viewing pleasure, thanks to Gabriel Herrera (who gets things right, on occasion)

-S.Mintz

Setting the Record Straight

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Wow! Have I ever been happier to see a weekend come to its conclusion!

Initially, I was looking forward to the weekend of shows we had: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, WAVVES and Heiruspecs. Not bad for a bunch of college “kids” I’d say.

On Friday at Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin I told Sam I was actually going to stand in front and enjoy myself at the show and he was cool with it. Everything was going really well until a few songs into Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s set, two obviously drunk and obviously underage kids decided to jump up on stage and become part of the performance (I’m sorry I don’t have pictures). It resulted in me conferring with Sam and running up to the office to get my badge to show my authority and a few seconds deliberation with the band leading to a quick stifling of the two drunk underagers’ antics. Both Sam and I had to pull them off stage multiple times. By the end of the show we decided to send one of them packing which compelled him to call me an “ass” and give both of us the gooney bird. By the way, this was on Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s twitter: “driving to Dekalb. Last two shows have been like Girl Talk shows , but with way better music.”

On Saturday at WAVVES, Brandon, John and I must have turned away at least 50-75 people from The Project Lodge (capacity of 75). That was to be expected but you don’t expect when telling someone “sorry, we’re at capacity and not letting anyone in right now” that it is up for discussion. Do people in Madison have a sense of entitlement or is that just the frame of mind that free shows create? I don’t know how many times I had to argue with people about why they couldn’t come in.

“Dude, I have a ticket. You’re letting in people without tickets.”

“Well, if you would have read what was on the ticket, you would have realized that it was only good until 7:30pm and it is now 8:30pm.”

“I guess I didn’t realize…”

“Well, that’s why you aren’t getting into the show right now.”

What drives me nuts is that if a show was sold out at the High Noon Saloon, you wouldn’t be arguing with the doorman about what that means and that you should get to go in anyways.

There were also some local Madison musicians who thought they could subvert the system and either sneak in the back door (Zola Jesus, Burial Hex) or bum rush the front door (Deep Shit) at 10pm when WAVVES went on even though everyone else who got into the show had been waiting since 7pm to see WAVVES. Is there an unwritten code about shitty local bands thinking the world owes them something? I encourage you though to listen to “Sea Talk” by Zola Jesus. It is a really good song.

The real kicker of the night was WAVVES’ Nathan Williams only leaving his van for the 25 minutes it took him to play his set, then ducking into the alley to smoke a joint and then back into the van.  He didn’t even help load-in, albeit he was sick. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. People seemed to have fun and walked away pleased.

How was Heiruspecs? I couldn’t make it. Too exhausted. At least I made it out of the weekend in one piece.

-Patrick

Midnight Marauders: Game 2 Review

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Ooooh we done got messed up.

Not much else to say besides that. They were much better than us. The post-game wrap up was that we failed to execute our one game plan of having more high-percentage shots and strong outside passing with inside penetration (that’s what she said). There wasn’t much else to it. The game was iconically summed up by our own all star Truby going for the beard and knocking in the game winner for the other team, forcing the Mercy Rule into effect. 

Next week is a by-week so we are going to practice our fundamentals and dunking. 

Also having more extreme mannerisms like this guy:

Be on the lookout for jerseys next week and more play that looks like this:

Especially this:

Dolla Dolla bill y’all.

 

P.O.S. at the High Noon (16 Feb) Review

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P.O.S. is a show that you go to and generally expect something a little different each time. And that is what we got. Starting off with some guitar playing and ending by rapping in the the crowd. I wouldn’t go on a limb to say it was a roller coaster but it was…a roller coaster lots of folks have been on several times and know the parts where you make a face for the camera pics at the end. 

The set was well strung together with good transitions between songs like using the beat box he brought along to transition into Savion Glover by more or less producing the beat on stage. But also some abrupt transitions like ending Accident, transitioning into a new song about Doomtree’s exploits the past year (a “history” track which we have seen from fellow Rhymesayers’ artist Brother Ali) and then having DJ Plain Ole Bill throw on some Rick Astley and cordially telling the crowd that they had been “Rick-Rolled by Plain Ole Bill).

The set was constructed pretty much as I expected. Starting with some new tracks, throw in the oldie Half-Cocked Concepts by teasing the crowd with the beat intro for about 2 minutes, bringing some of the new Doomtree tracks with “guests” Sims and Mike Mitclan (who both had decent sets earlier in the night), throw in some Basics and ended on some of the down tempo new songs. Then actually ended by rapping Stand Up (Let’s Get Murdered) in the middle of the crowd. 

P.O.S. enjoyed the newcomers to his music that graced the audience and revealed the theme of the album to be doing what you want with your life, regardless of how much ca$h you make. All in all a good set.

Audience was a different matter. The thing about rap shows in Madison, specifically any Rhymesayers show is that you get the same group that can be semi annoying if you really want to watch the show. Surrounded by several stumbling drunk kids, people yelling at the performers, a couple of almost fights, smoking in the crowd, and a slew of Minnesota Twin hat sporting bros that Sims so graciously pointed out earlier in the night isn’t the most conducive to watching a good show. But that is where we are at now. P.O.S. has followed the trend of the label the last year by putting out a critically well received album that cuts across demographic lines in terms of its listening audience and the “eclectic” group of concert goers reflected it.

K’Naan at the Annex | 10 Feb

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So what sort of music was this supposed to be? Going into the show I thought it was going to be some sort of hip-hop sound (granted I did not do my research) but I felt more like I was going to some summer reggae concert and more importantly that the show should not be indoors.

For the most part the crowd at the Annex on Tuesday night was well into the concert and at the beginning it appeared that they would be more invested in the show than K’Naan himself. Early on in the night he said to the crowd “You know, I’m not sure that I am really feeling it…” followed by a ironic reverb from the sound system. I have heard this hype-up strategy used by rappers before, but for some reason he seemed sincere about this one. 

It turned out that he was indeed joking and as the night went on we drew the crowd in with a variety of hip-hop mixed with reggae mixed with African melodies mixed with Coldplay (I love gimmicks, and playing “Viva la Vida” in the middle of a set got me). Ultimately I didn’t do my research going into this concert and did not know much about this guy, and his style and why he is rapping is hard to figure out in the middle of a show, but in the end it made sense and seemed to work out quite well.

It appears at first that he has no distinguishable style. By that I mean there is nothing that would distinguish him if he was from the US. Not only his style but also his lyrical content seems to sit in a valley somewhere between Rap, Reggae, Personal Story, and Stylistic Rap. In any given song you get a combination of these. 

Even though it can be a little difficult to distinguish the hype around him at first it quickly becomes evident that this merger of styles and lyrics along with the fact that it is different that US rap of a similar style is what makes it work. What do I mean by this? A lot of conscious rappers like to get in your face now and again. A lot of spoken word likes to get in your face. K’Naan just says what it is and plays what he wants.

It might seem like a low key show at first, and that was my first reaction since I didn’t really know the songs. But after going back and checking it out for a second time it makes sense. I would rather have K’Naan tell me his personal story with his own stylings than have a spoken word poet wrap it up in too many metaphors in a room full of people who say “Mmmmm” after every profound statement they may or may not understand.

K’Naan put on a good show with an eclectic mixtures of sound and a blunt but honest message, but didn’t forget to add some not so serious tracks on top of that too. But what made the show was having a crowd drawn from all corners of the spectrum. Kids in wolf shirts to people waving the Somalian flag, old hippies to new hippies, the whole gang was there. You don’t get that a lot in Madison and when it happens, its refreshing.  

Sorry I don’t know the order of the songs. If you care you can read about it here at the Decider’s review.

Los Campesinos!

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quokkas1

I’ve been dilly dallying on this post. I just want to thank everyone who came to the show. Just a few notes:

I was impressed by Titus Andronicus, who I thought put on an incredible show.

As for Los Campensinos! I thought it was an incredibly good set. Sorry about no encore, the guy playing the glokenspeil had an asthma attack during the last song.

The heat, crowd, and sweat surprisingly didn’t deter many from leaving the show. I know, Der Rathskeller is and forever will be ” a logistical nightmare ” but we got off alright and it seems as if everyone was having a good time.  That’s how it is,  part of its charm for me is seeing everyone roll with the punches–having fun because and despite probablatic conditions.

Thanks for Muzzle of Bees for helping get the word out.

by the way. i want to leave you with my other favorite international artist.

Five Times August Review

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Five Times August capped off a weekend of interesting experiments in Der Rathskeller. On Friday night for Los Campesinos! we tried to see how many people we could fit in Der Rathskeller and how sweaty, noisy, chaotic one mass of people could get.

credit Ed Oliver from Muzzle of Bees

credit Ed Oliver from Muzzle of Bees

On Saturday, Brad Skistimas, mastermind behind Five Times August, represented the converse (or maybe the control): a quiet singer-songwriter wooing a small subdued crowd of pre-twenty-somethings, who just kind of sat there. Der Rathskeller went from a steaming, ebbing and flowing fun house to a quaint sort of living room overnight. (see: German beer hall turned nursery)

five-times-aug-backdrop

Highlights of the night:

My introduction of Skistimas written by the band’s manager which included references to MTV’s The Hills and Lifetime’s Army Wives: dramatic pauses after the announcement of both television shows (per committee member Scott Janowiak’s advice) resounded in applause and roar, the most energy from the crowd all night.

scott

At one point in the night, after Skistimas played his seemingly “big hit,” a group of people sitting front row and center, got up to leave with about 30 minutes left in the set, prompting Skistimas to call them “douche bags” and advising them to “have a few drinks and then drive home.” It was refreshing to see such grit from such a laid back performer who presented himself with no frills.

brad-and-the-gang1

Maybe Der Rathskeller would have been more crowded if Jessica Simpson and Rascal Flatts weren’t playing at the Kohl Center at the same time.

rascal-flatts

Here are some more photos from the show courtesy of committee member Brigid Hogan:

fta-posters
five-times-aug-me-and-brad

Brandon Clementi rockin’ the mic and tearin’ up the dance floor (no jokes):

brandon-rippin