We went to see Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and BadBadNotGood at the Halifax Forum last night, as part of Halifax Pop Explosion. Here's what we saw.
1. Difficulty finding a surprisingly good venue
Apparently the Halifax Forum Multi-Purpose Centre is a fancy name for behind the bingo hall. We did not realize that. What really caught us off guard was how good this unpretentious venue turned out to be. Compared to most other 1,000-2,000-person venue weve been to, it had fantastic sound and sightlines.
2. A high-energy, genre-bending performance by local boy Cam Smith
Generally, if you were to describe something as hip-hop with dashes of dance music and hard rock, we would back away from it so fast that wed leave an us-shaped hole in the wall. That said, Darmouth, N.S. native Cam Smith is so charismatic and high energy, and his band is so clever and not ham-fisted in their approach to genre blending, that the show quickly turns into a wild party. Its been a long time since weve seen a local opener generate enough excitement that they could do a T-shirt toss and not have it be a sad parody of itself.
3. Lines
In addition to there being a line to get in the door, there was also a massive lineup to get into the 19+ area, and then another, equally long line to get drinks. We just dealt with it by not drinking and hanging out with the kids all night, but some people couldnt handle that apparently.
4. The total joy of BadBadNotGood
We never really stop being surprised by watching teens and early 20-somethings mosh to jazz at BadBadNotGood shows, but weve never noticed how much BadBadNotGood enjoy being onstage. Keyboardist Matthew Tavares in particular looks like hes having some sort of religious experience the entire time.
5. A very, very long wait
In between BadBadNotGood wrapping up and Ghost and Rae taking the stage, there was a full 90 minutes. Some people left. The crowd was pretty evenly split between people chanting Wu! Tang! to coax their heroes onstage and just booing. (In the two MCs defence, they later said they had trouble at customs, which, considering the fact that Ghostface wasnt allowed in the country at all for 15 years, seems pretty believable.)
6. A show worth the wait
Heres the thing about Ghostface Killah and Raekwon as a unit. Theyve been working together for more than 20 years. They are quite possibly the only two members of the Wu-Tang Clan who still get along really well. Their show is a non-stop barrage of hits, both from their solo efforts and from Wu albums, broken up only be exhortations to the crowd to get more active.
7. The best version of 'Protect Ya Neck' ever
At this point, its become a tradition at Ghost and Rae shows for the two MCs to pull audience members onstage to stand in for other members of the Clan during Protect Ya Neck. This time, all three aspriring MCs they pulled onstage were amazing, particularly the guy who did the Method Man verse, who would best be described as looking like a nervous businessman when he first came up, and the ODB stand-in, who wound up doing a capella versions of the RZA and GZA verses as a bonus.
8. BadBadNotGood, Ghostface and Raekwon together, onstage at once
This is what we all came to see, and in the last 20 minutes of Ghost and Raes set, thats what happened, and it was amazing. Wu classics like C.R.E.AM. took on a new, darker, more jazzy tone. They also covered a series of other hip-hop classics, including songs from other Wu members, and Nass The World is Yours, which was so exciting to see it almost caused a rip in the space-time continuum.
