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This time, I promise, I won’t mention the weather beyond this; it was damn hot.

“There’s not going to be anyone there. It’s hip-hop and Dinosaur Jr. is playing for free in Central Park. It’s going to be dead.” As usual, Edwina was right.

It was kind of barren when we made our way over at around two thirty. Car Stereo Wars was playing a very proficient Ableton set that was much better than I was anticipating, doing more straight mixing that was only possible with Ableton and less playing of straight mash-ups. There were a few elements of the songs on his MySpace page in his set throughout the day with many of the usual suspects in these kind of public space sets; 80s rock, hip-hop, 90s alternative, Michael Jackson, and the like. Nothing really challenging, but I guess the “No Cursing” rule that was in effect for Fucked Up a few weeks ago was not in effect for today, something the DJs would have violated more than the other Performers.

Edwina wanted to get there early to see Kenan Bell and based on the strength of blog buzz for his recent shows in the area opening for De La Soul. Kenan is a language arts teacher in Los Angeles who raps with a full band instead of a DJ or sampler and his lyrics are very introspective, but don’t mistake this for tedious. On stage with Ted Feldman, from band Bearhands, playing lead guitar (having just learned the songs two days ago), there was also a bassist, a drummer playing what looked like an antique style kit (one hat, a snare, a crash cymbal, a tom and a kick), and a keyboardist, Milk, who triggers the few samples that are used. Each of these artists put out music that was a bit more up tempo than “typical” hip hop inspiring movement. Some tracks being a bit more minimal in their instrumentation while others were fuzzed out walls of samples. As Kenan is a humanities teacher, I would have expected a bit stronger vocabulary and more literary allusions, but he was, for better or worse very much rooted into traditional hip hop that would sometimes will affect his meter and content. Thankfully though, this lyrical traditionalism didn’t expend to his musical influences that included a Peter, Bjorn and John cover, elements of psychedelica, west coast funk and even elements of country swing. He has a free mix tape available from his site, (www.kenanbell.com) which is worth checking out.

DD/MM/YYYY followed. I’ve been a fan since I caught them a few years ago in DC. It’s a band from Toronto who plays discordant noise-music in a style recalling nowave post-punk of the sort found in New York in the 80s . Chords and patterns at right angles springing from nowhere going nowhere and then vanishing into the next pattern. It strikes me as the soundtrack to geometric abstraction like Piet Mondrian but a bit messier, with more humanity. Their set list was newer songs and a preview of some upcoming releases. Knowing the crowd was hot, they took time to throw bottles of water to the audience at various points, but the heat didn’t sap them of their energetic onstage presence. Instruments were traded for various songs; keyboards were played with feet, as the hands of the musician were busy playing drums, Tomas’s blond dyed hair flew from his head as he beat into his instruments. Through out the performance there is a sense of barely contained chaos, held in place with non-Euclidean geometry conjured from their instruments and it was glorious.

Gravytrain!!!! is a four piece performance art ensemble from San Francisco who’s pan-sexual performance is, you know what? …fuck that shit. Gravytrain!!!! is the nightmares of San Francisco which haunt Middle America. Known for songs like “Titties Bounce” “Pussy Thrust” with lyrics like “You Can’t Bone my mouth if my mouth is bone dry.” The four members sport stage name that do more than hide their names, like a Justice League of Freaks, they each contain a bit of personality. There’s Junx, a fit tall black man, came on stage and at various times demanded to be given a Puerto Rican boyfriend, Drugs and Air Conditioning whose talents onstage included synchronized dance routines, playing guitar, singing, packing heat in the tiniest shorts this side of Kevin Barnes and generally what my school counselor would have labeled “acting out.” Hunx, the mostly musician, spent time on guitar, keyboards, singing, wading into the press pit to “touch” the photographers and people in the front, and smacking around the failing drummer, an old ipod whose connector kept getting loose forcing songs to be restarted. “We shouldn’t have hired Scott Weiland to be our drummer. We thought he was over his heroin.“ Chunx stated. She’s the singer, madam of the bunch who managed to exude a kind of crazy classy party vibe which set the tone for the set. Funx, the keyboardist, was quiet, but we were told she had been sick all day. This didn’t prevent her from dancing in sync with Junx, doing a copious amount of splits and also harassing the press (at one point putting her dress over a photographer’s face. At the end of the set, Junx went into the crowd for “Titties Bounce” and it turned into a barely contained pansexual orgy of sweaty interlopers. Or it would have if the band had their way.

I was very curious as to what Prince Paul would do. I know his history as a producer for some of the greatest hip-hop albums and collaborations of all time and I also was familiar with his past as a block party and DMC class DJ , but I had never seen him live. He set up using Technics and Serato Scratch and he promised us an “Old School Out Door Party” that he dedicated to Michael Jackson. He opened with a Jackson Five track and then chronologically through funk, playing the break beats which were the fundamental building blocks for early hip-hop, onto early New York sound, with some stops at the West Coast, but it was essentially hip-hop 101 in twenty-five minutes. The DMC skills weren’t displayed, as the music was the showcase, not the performer. Prince Paul utilized simple scratch-ins and cuts to sequence between tracks. He brought his six-year old daughter onstage and while she stayed behind the decks, she was adorable as she sang along to songs four times older than her. Her knowledge was kind of impressive and you can see why she was part of the impetus for Prince Paul’s album for kids, Baby Loves Hiphop: Dino5.

I’ve been a fan of Del since my friend Gerard Griffin introduced me to him back in 1993 with No Need For Alarm. Gerard was responsible for a great deal of my hip hop knowledge in the time period pretty much single handedly saving the genre for me in the record label’s rush to legitimize every West Coast Gangster / Rapper in the wake of Dr Dre’s Da Chronic. Del’s goofy lower-class-experience rhymes and unique flow thanks to a slightly nasal timbre and a wicked sense of production stood out, and his collaborations with many artists have brought his really uncommon tenor to the masses.

In true hip hop headliner fashion, Del had a mini-opening act by Beaucoup who went on to serve as toaster when Del finally came onstage. Beau’s rhymes were good, but where I was standing the bass drowned out the vocals, so I couldn’t catch much beyond the vocal pentameter, but the crowd got into it and he was able to lead us through a song dismissing flash rappers as “too much cheddar, not enough butter.” Zack Hendrix was the DJ, having worked with Del most recently on FunkMan, Del’s recently released free album. Zack used a combination of vinyl and Scratch.

Del opened strong, blowing through “No Need for Alarm,” “Mistadobalina,” “Dr. Bombay,” “Virus” from Deltron 3030 (some fucking kid behind kept screaming Deltron 3030, as though he were unaware of any thing else Del had done) , “If You Must” (dedicated to all of us standing in the heat on concrete), and closed with “Clint Eastwood” from the Gorillaz album.

There were a few songs I had hoped to catch, and didn’t hear anything from Both Sides of the Brain. With Prince Paul on the lineup, there was a secret hope for “Magnetizing” from Handsome Boy Modeling School but that didn’t come to pass either. There were songs from Funkman which I didn’t recognize, and possibly from Eleventh Hour.

Overall, it was an exciting animated and satisfying set from one of the heroes of my high school music experience.

Category : Show Review