None Shall Pass

Originally posted at WNE on 09/14/07

Two weekends ago I got a call from my friend Brian to see the None Shall Pass tour in DC. When I got off the phone I was hyped. I have been listening to Aesop Rock for going on four years now and have never seen him live. Partly because he never really ventured near Richmond in a time frame that matched my own and because up until recently none of my friends shared my enthusiasm for his work. Not only would I get to see Aesop for the first time, but Blockhead was on the tour as well. I was admittedly introduced to Blockhead's music through Aesop's album "Float", but have grown to appreciate his work at the same level of Aesop's.

Monday evening I took off work early to meet Brian at my house for the trip to DC. We got on 95 and threw on Aesop's new album "None Shall Pass", I know surprising that the tour promoting the new album would have the same name. We hit zero traffic and were in DC an hour before the doors opened (7:30pm). Thankfully Brian had directions because my memories of my last trip to the 9:30 club are seven years old and counting (I saw Talib Kweli open for Dilated Peoples my freshman year of college). We grabbed a parking spot right in front of the club and ventured into the city on foot to find some food.

The place we found was a pleasant surprise, there is an Irish pub about two blocks west of the club that serves a mean ruben and tots with every dish. We put back a few beers, talked a little football and women, and made our way back to the club at 7:45pm. I've never been patted down to see a show before, so it was a weird experience walking into the show and hoping the bouncer didn't get to friendly. We went to the top floor, opened a tab and then went to the balcony to wait for the show.

Blockhead was on first and we made our way from the balcony to the floor. Something that struck me as odd was his use of a mac laptop to spin on stage. He had no turn tables to speak of and at first I was a bit put off by it. Once he started spinning (hard drives spin too I guess) my hesitation soon faded. His live music is a lot more up tempo in comparison to his more mellow album work. Much more dance friendly which makes since considering you have a crowd of people ready to move. He mixed small pieces of techno with surprising samples of Phil Collin's "In The Air Tonight " and many other artist that would normally seem out of place in hip hop. It worked though and it was distinctly hip hop at its core.

The group that came on next was called Yak Balls, they did two songs and then opened for Cage half way through their third. I had never heard of Yak Balls and had only knew Cage by name not his music. Yak Balls was not bad, but they seemed very raw. Cage's style was much tighter, but his music was still kind of loud and angsty. By the end of their set I was ready for Aesop. I'd still like to listen to some of Cage's albums as their could be some good music there, unfortunately my first impression from his live set was a bit negative.

Aesop , Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz came out to wild cheers from the audience. Aesop's set was a high energy mix from his new album and his older tracks. They also performed a few songs from Rob's new album and let Big Wiz take the spotlight near the end to showcase his scratching. Aesop's live music was great and Rob Sonic an artist I had only heard for the first time on "None Shall Pass" was very impressive. The show ended with an encore of "Daylight", the song that everyone must have been turned on to Aesop Rock by, because everyone knew the lyrics and sang along.

The crowed slowly shuffled to the door, Brian went to pay his tab and I made my way to the merch table. I picked up Blockhead's and Rob Sonic's new albums and meet Brian at the car. We got lost for 45 minutes in what we soon determined was the DC ghetto (two check cashing stores, a fried chicken restaurant and a liquor store all on the same block). We got to the highway around 12:45am and back into Richmond at 2:30am.

I took off Tuesday to recover which end up being a great idea. The one thing I noticed most at the show was my bad back flaring up. It made me feel old standing for the entire show and it was nice to take it easy the next day.