You should always support your local music - but sometimes it’s just so damn hard.
My friend picked me up from my house a couple hours after S.W.A.T. descended on my neighbors (see the post below), and off we went to the Village Tavern to catch the MC Chris show. Slated to take the stage around 8, MC Chris had local Charleston band White Boy Crazy open up for him. My Night to Remember Trilogy ends with a music review. Or, at least, what my version of a music review is…
White Boy Crazy is a conglomeration of dudes from other local Charleston bands (the names of which escape me right now), who, when together, are a hip hop/trip hop band (think Beastie Boys Ill Communication’s stranger instrumental cuts).
Now, I have to admit up front that kind of music isn’t my bailiwick. However, I’m a fan enough of music to know when someone’s wrapping their hands around the throat of a song and assaulting it. The first two songs they played were so chock full of electronic doo dads, mic effects, and assorted hoots and hollers that it sounded like someone plugged a Speak and Spell into the mic, and spent the next 15 minutes sodomizing it repeatedly.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you what they were wearing. One guy had on a Bozo the Clown full on head mask (see pic in post below). Another had a gorilla mask on, similar to what you’d find in any store around Halloween. The guitar player was wearing a Mask. I think the drummer just had on shades ( I couldn’t really see him). And the last guy looked competely normal - save the pineapple hanging around his neck like a necklace. Gimmicks, fellas. They tell me you need to practice more, and play dress up less.
The two songs that followed held some promise, however. White Boy Crazy dropped much of the crazy, and a lot of the white boy, because these songs held down a groove, and by the middle of their third tune, they had some of the crowd moving.
These guys could perform, though. Even though their tunes were hit and miss, they worked their asses off onstage, y’all. They were fun to watch. At one point between songs, some dude in the audience busted out his cell phone to make a call, and Mask came down off the stage, took the guy’s phone out of his hand and, during what was actually a pretty good song, rapped, sang, and talked to the person on the other end of the line. That was good stuff!
They should’ve closed on that one. They had everyone amped and wanting more. But, they did one more song, which sounded like Otis singing bad karaoke to a slow song while Ms. Pac Man died, writhing in agony, in the background. Shoulda closed with the previous song fellas…
But after they were done, MC Chris took the stage, and y’all know what happened next! Me, my friend, and a three-inch Wookie took the city by storm…
I think you’re smart and very pretty.
-KS
PS - I just realized that if that band Google’s themselves, they’s in for a surprise. But, I’d love to hear their thoughts on the show. I think I was pretty honest.