STONES THROW's Chrome Children Tour @ Le National

By Chris Coates - The Melting Pot - 10/31/2006

Pioneering Bay Area indie hip hop label Stones Throw Records is 10 years old and to celebrate, Peanut Butter Wolf and crew have released the Chrome Children compilation and embarked on a 16-date tour of North America. On Halloween night, the beat dropped at Le National, where my entourage of blunted rap fanatics and I arrived around 9pm, just in time for The Beat Junkies’ J Rocc to introduce Aloe Blacc. Still recovering from the disappointment of finding out that Guilty Simpson, Oh No and co-sign Roc C wouldn’t be performing, it took me a few songs to warm up to Blacc’s ultra-positive raps and singing at perfect pitch. Halfway through his 35-minute performance though, it became evident dude could rock. With a veteran’s handle, Blacc wove seamlessly between material from earlier EPs and highlights from 2006’s Shine Through without backups or a hype-man, providing an effective opening set to which the crowd of 150 was only mildly responsive. Legendary rhyme juggernaut Percee P followed up with what proved to be the show’s most entertaining 45 minutes, albeit generally chorus-less. Because Percee is a rapper’s rapper, his set was more like an MC clinic in delivery. With each bar, from a back catalogue that’s now almost 20 years deep, Percee urged the crowd to "check out the levels and patterns" of his verses as he enunciated each syllable with his hands like the composer of some sort of insane one-man rap orchestra. Classic shit. After PB Wolf mixed old-school music videos onto an overhead projector (attn: DJs, read the next 'thing') for what I deemed to be way too long, Madlib hit the stage and delivered a solid 25 minutes, highlighted by "The Red", some old Quasimoto and the lead single off Chrome Children, "Take It Back". Then, he walked off stage, the lights came on and that was it. Me and my team were shocked. A 25-minute set? Discussing the matter after the show, we concluded that when your name is the reason why the venue is full at $25 per head (and your DJ mixes videos for too long before your set), you should do at least 35-40 minutes despite tour fatigue or whatever. Not only is it the right thing to do, but also it basically completes the night, and doesn’t leave your audience wondering whether the build-up was worth it. 6.5/10.

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