Wu-Tang in Van-city
Who: Lou Diamonds, Corey Woods, Chef Raekwon or most commonly known as just Raekwon.Where: Croatian Cultural Centre. General Admission
When: Apr 15, 2006
How much: $30
I didn’t even know there was a going to be a show until someone was handing out cards at Alife earlier in the day. The show was supposed to start at 9, but they didn’t even open the doors until 9:40ish. The first opening act didn’t hit the stage until 10:30-ish. Earlier, there was guy hanging outside who I thought was a bum, but go figure, he was part of the opening act. I guess everyone figures they can “rap”. I forgot the rest of the opening acts because they were awful. The sound was horrendous, so I couldn’t understand anything the performers were saying. This dragged on until ~ 12:15 pm and I seriously thought about leaving at this point.
Then Rae hit the stage.
Set List (from what I remembered)
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy ya
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - Brooklyn zoo (partial version)
Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces (Up to second verse)
Raekwon - Ice Cream (Up to method man’s verse?)
Raekwon - Criminology (To the end of Rae's verse)
Raekwon – State of grace (from the upcoming Cuban Linx II)
Raekwon - Verbal Intercouse (Just Nas’ verse)
Wu-Tang Clan - Cream
Wu-Tang Clan - Da mystery of chessboxing (Up to ODB’s verse)
Wu-Tang Clan - Can it all be so simple (First verse, chorus)
Wu-Tang Clan - Protect ya neck (Up to U-god’s verse)
Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin to Fuck Wit (Up to Deck’s Verse?)
Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph (Up to Deck’s verse)
Tributes were made to J Dilla, Proof and ODB
The good:
- I was like 5-8 feet from the stage.
- I can now see why hip hop is huge in the mainstream. Even with a no talent rapper (90-95% rappers out there) and bass heavy beat, you can have the whole place rocking. Honestly, the front audience just exploded when Cream and Protect Ya Neck started; people were jumping around as if their life depended on it while screaming along with song.
Compare this with the zombies from Nada Surf’s set. You tell me which show would be more fun to attend…..unless you’re one of these zombies.....
- Earlier, I wondered how Rae would pull off many of the Wu-songs because many of them are posse cuts. No problem, Rae performed rap other people’s verses.
The bad:
- Horrible sound. I could barely make out what Rae was saying. I could only understand every other verse, which made it difficult to know what song was being performed.
Honestly, Rae could’ve been rapping about raping little children and everyone would still eat it up. Hence the problem with hip hop today, people listen exclusively to the beat (short loop of music) while completely ignoring the lyrics (the crux of the song).
- Original music was used for a number of the songs. This lead to 2 problems. One, I’d usually yearn for the original beat. Two, to figure what song it was, I had to *really* listen to the lyrics (see above problem about sound).
- Why were most of the songs truncated? It makes no sense. You wouldn’t perform strictly partial songs in a rock show. And apparently, the Clan does this all of the time. No wonder they haven’t been on top in a long time…not to mention: the over saturation of Wu-albums, lack of album output and not showing up to clan concerts.
- The numerous posers in the crowd. I’m sure a lot of these punks listen to Nelly, Chingy and Lil’ Jon in their spare time (the antithesis of the Wu-Tang Clan for the uninformed). I’m sure many were there for the spectacle. I honestly wondered how many people could even name the entire clan(RZA, GZA, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, ODB, Masta Killa, U-God and depending on who you ask, Cappadonna).
- When Rae asked for some girls to join him on stage, the 10-15 girls were neither hot or willing to get nekkid. Boo urns.
In the end, I was somewhat satisfied. I should have bought a Cuban Linx II shirt for 30 bucks or at the very least, one of the mixtapes that were offered at the end of the show. Ah well.
posted by Edward @ 1:05 AM
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