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Diaryland |
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2003-04-15 - 9:22 a.m. So me and Kevin Roll up to the Ottobar promptly at 9 to see a sea of people in the back lot of the joint. Not a good sign, they are letting people in the side doors. It was like this when I saw David Cross there, but luckily I pre-ordered tickets then. I didn't know Dillenger Escape Plan was so fucking big, and selling out on a Monday night no less?!?! Needless to say, we weren't gonna wait in line for an hour just to be told the place has already been sold out, so me and Kevin went up stairs to regroup. Yeah, so that was a big letdown, some fucking CD player DJ was playing cock rock classics upstairs and the scene was just whack. So me and Kevin get drinks from the cute bartender with dreads and ponder are next moves. A couple of jackasses playing pool put money and the jukebox and while Kevin and I were pondering over drinks, we were hearing techno from the jukebox, cock rock from the DJ, and some heavy bass and screaming from the band downstairs all at once. I felt bad, we came down here for this? I knew Kevin was really looking forward to this too, but he took it surprisingly well, giving me a menagerie of reasons why he was glad we didn't make it in the show. I'm glad we didn't get in: -"Because you know how I am with punk girls Mike. I would probably go bananas in there." -"Because I'd get killed out in that mosh pit and I gotta go to work tommorrow." -"Because imagine the ringing in our ears that we'd get at the end of the night?" It was so anti-climatic, but I wasn't gonna let the night go to waste, Kevin wasn't neither. We both decided though to comphensate on the night's woes and agreed we would preorder tickets to the Bindlestiff Family Circus for Wednesday night. That should be interesting, most definitely. We're gonna see some freaky shit this week, OR ELSE! So, Kevin wanted to hit up a strip club and as fun as it sounds to have boobies in your face, it just wasn't my cup of tea. We both agreed to hit up the Five Seasons for Spitfire Mondays. Kevin and I heard of this weekly event from a cool cat named "Madd Ox" who's an excellent spitter and beatboxer, whom we've run into on a number of occasions. I remember the first time we saw him, he was wearing a kermit puppet around his neck and beatboxing on stage, so instantly then, we knew he was good people. He encouraged us to come out to see some local acts, dope poetry and the like, and bam! we got up and did. We were instantly greeted at the door by local artist Shank Rock, whom we also met previously along with "Ox" and me looking like a character myself, he remembered Kevin and I coppin' his CD at the Ottobar way back when. Going to the door, we were barraged by elaborate handshakes and warm greetings, instant love for just coming out and attending. Let's just say Kevin was the non-dairy creamer and I was the Kahlua in the sea of a fine arabica roast blend. The crowd was littered with throwback jerseys and hats. The ladies were scattered about. There was the Petite girl next to us with her man in the denim outfit that made her ass look cartoon. Across the floor, we see the heroin chic chick, light skinned "and bones" wearing ruby red lipstick and looking like she was disinterested the whole night, with that porcelain complexion sucking on cigarettes through them bright red lips that were illuminating her pale, cold face. She looked like a strung out Rae Dawn Chong without curly hair and that's my word. The night was littered with open mic-er's inbetween featured local artist sets. The MC for the night was the Shadowman, a very gifted spitter, and high strung individual. There was a rift of negative energy going throughout the show it seemed, before the show, Shank Rock had put out a new track sort of making fun of the Shadowman and the five staples he had in his head. Apparently, he used to have dreads, but last week, as he said, "Caught a bat to the head" and was still standing to tell the tale. There was a random dispute between Shadow and some people in the crowd, the DJ had technical difficulties during sets where CDs were playing. They were either giving him some low budget scratched CD's or the bass was shaking his player so much that it skipped. *Note to DJs, get a walkman with 30 seconds of anti-skip and get a mini to RCA adapter and you won't have a skipping problem. The night was permeated with memorials and asking for prayers and thoughts. The DJ buried one of his friends earlier in the day. Another lost a friend who got hit by a car. One open mic'er had a father in the hospital. The turn out wasn't something I expected, they had a steady crowd for a Monday night open mic event, the place was standing room only because there were only 10 chairs. There were probably more then 50 people in there downstairs and I never went upstairs, but there was a handful up there too. Alot of support came out for these local artists and reminded me of the feeling I got being emerged in the Pittsburgh hip-hop scene. The reception was warm but the message was mixed. I was in paper research mode the entire night. I remember the thought that flew into my head in the middle of the night, "Why am I here? What is it that drives me here?" I think now and it's hard to relate to gangsta this, gangsta that, I never packed heat. Now, don't get me wrong, the whole night wasn't like this, there was also alot of conscious hip hop being spit but alot of rhyming "Nigga with Nigga" going on throughout the night. Leaving the show, around 12:30, there was still a bit of show to see, but Kevin had to work and I was tired as all hell and leaving the door, I gave Ox some love and I said to him, "So this is Spitfire Mondays?" and he leaned over to me and said, "Don't let this be the only example for this." Ox knew of the vibe in the air. We were greeted by a couple more people as we left that help throw the show thanking us for coming out and telling us how they wanted to branch this out all over, all shades, all types of people. The scene here is small and thriving and always looking out for one another. That's a good thing. Now I need to spit and put out a mix, I got connections now. :)
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