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By Döc Holidæ - Phantastiq Cypha - 07/22/2008

“Ether.” It was all I could think about as I made my way to the Nas concert. Would Nas spit the track that some called be best diss track ever written? Now that Nas and Jay-Z have put their dislike for each other behind them and have even collaborated on tracks together, it was safe to say he wouldn’t go there…or would he?

Let’s start from the beginning of the evening though. I got to Metropolis at exactly 8pm (when the show was suppose to start). Lucky for me, two guys were break dancing on the floor and drew attention away from the stage. I snuck my way to the front, bumped into my friend Roberto and we found ourselves dead center of the stage.

After an hour of nothing, a young, shy looking DJ took the stage and started to set up his laptop and turntables. He started to scratch, then Jay Electronica jumped on at 9.05. I was annoyed; this was the second show in a month that I went to that was running a lot later than it should have been, but Jay held it down. I’ve never heard any of his stuff but I can easily say I liked his performance. The first thing he did was throw his cane into the crowd, and people went crazy. He continued to make dedications to NY’s finest, dropping a Biggie verse and spitting a few Nas lines. His performance wasn’t only good, it was smart. He spoke to the crowd, jumped down to get close to the front row, and did everything to help the crowd forget the long wait. I say that because by the time he left the stage, I completely forgot that the show started an hour late.

After another twenty-minute wait, we we’re graced with the presence of Talib Kweli. Now. I know a lot of people who only went to the show for Kweli, which I can understand because personally, I’m a bigger fan of Talib Kweli than Nas. He performed numerous tracks from almost all his albums and collaborations. If you ask me, take a verse from “Definition” off of Black Star, sprinkle a little of  “Move Somethin” from Reflection Eternal, add some “Get By” from the Quality and top it off with “Hot Thing” from Eardrum, and you have the perfect performance. Kweli joked about losing his voice a few tracks in because we had him so hyped up. Trust me -- we were only giving back what he gave us.

As Kweli left the stagem the girls that were standing in front of us decided to head upstairs to look for seats. Roberto and I moved forward and waited patiently for Nas to take the stage. The wait was a little long but when he did get on he was well received. While I was a bigger Talib Kweli fan and still hadn’t heard Nas’ new album, I was anxious to hear some of the tracks. As he introduced the song “Sly Fox,” he spoke about his dislike for FOX News and Bill O’Reilly much to the pleasure of the crowd. He went on to perform “N.I.G.G.E.R.,” “Black President” and “Breath” from his latest release, Untitled. If these songs are just the tip of what that whole album is like, I’m definitely going to buy a copy. For those who love the older stuff, Nas dropped “Got Urself A,” “Made You Look” and “Life’s a Bitch” from Illmatic. Each and every song was delivered with more energy, building up right to the end, when the crowd started chanting for “Ether”…which brings me back to the beginning. Would he spit the track that some called the best diss track ever written? Regrettably no. Knowing that the battle with Jay-Z was behind him, Nas opted to not perform it, but instead gave us an extended set with some freestyle tracks.

I forgot to mention that his tour DJ was none other than DJ Green Lantern. In one night, I saw Talib Kweli, Green Lantern, Nas and was introduced to Jay Electronica -- definitely a concert worth seeing. If you’re reading this and they haven’t been to your city yet, go get your tickets now.

Tune in to Phantastiq Cypha with Brian every Friday from 9am-12pm

By Adrian - Eclectricity - 03/09/2008

KRS-One’s 1994 Montreal concert is the greatest concert experience of my life. With the exception of The Roots or Femi Kuti, no concert, hip-hop or otherwise, has managed to dethrone KRS' impact on me. Not even his 1997 Montreal concert could top that night. Since 1997, there have been a lot of changes on my part. Nothing is stagnant. Things change for better or worse. My views on hip-hop music and concerts have changed. KRS' Montreal concerts have obviously changed as well, bringing us to March 9, 2008 at National.

When I learned of KRS' Montreal date, I was leery. I didn't want anything to ruin my already high esteem of him and that 1994 night. There was a strong turn out that Sunday night despite the weekend's snow storm. One realized that the night was going to be memorable judging by the crowd's reaction to "MCs Act Like They Don't Know," one of his set's earliest tracks. To see the icon performing live in front of you is worth the cost of admission. After the initial moment of being star struck wore off, I prepared myself for what was to come.

The night was filled with highs and lows. Among the lows were factors within and outside of KRS' control. Never have I heard a performer comment about technical difficulties as much as I did that night. He couldn't get the lights turned down when needed, he occasionally asked if he was being heard, and he could not get anyone to turn off the air-conditioning. There was an overall feeling that this concert was makeshift and nearly did not take place. It is not certain whether there was a communication breakdown due to language barrier, but one could feel there may not have been a lot of preparation for the night.

I noticed a trend with KRS Montreal concerts that stems from 1997. Unlike the 1994 concert where he was the central figure on stage, in 1997 he brought more people on stage with him including BDP members and breakdancers. In the beginning of the show, he was the sole figure on stage aside from the DJs, but by the middle to the end, it was a free-for-all. He asked audience members to come onstage and dance. Within moments, he had a scene from "Step Up" or "You Got Served" going on. That was interesting but suspect at the same time. Next, he invited audience members to go on stage and rhyme while he drew on blank white t-shirts and shot them into the crowd. That moment looked like 8 Mile onstage. Was all this filler or planned? On one hand, I felt that he was recreating a Bronx block party on stage, but on the other I was wondering if he was saving his energy for a bigger venue the next night. The jury is still out on that issue.

Still, KRS is such a seasoned performer that he overcame any difficulties he may have had on stage. Something that was difficult to accept was his sampler style presentation of his music. With over twenty years of material, he is not expected to perform all his songs in one night. The problem was that one verse of each song is not enough KRS. Few MCs have the charisma and stage presence of KRS. I know that, the audience knows that, and most importantly, he knows that. When you add the technical problems and relatively limited time on stage, you get the feeling you were lucky to see him that night.

A lot has changed for me, KRS and his Montreal concerts since 1994. I had the privilege of attending the greatest concert of my life and he was a major factor for that night being so memorable. Perhaps some people in the audience at Le National thought that was the greatest concert of their life. One thing is undeniable. KRS has what it takes to make any performance memorable. Thanks for '94 Kris.

Tune in to Eclectricity with Adrian every Sunday from 2pm - 4pm

By Andrij Radio (aka DJ Dreeko) - West African Hour - 07/15/2008

Black Umfolosi are an a capella group that hail from Zimbabwe. With five members, all incredible singers, the band’s style is similar to Ladysmith Black Mambazo with rich and warm harmonies. They also love to dance, and so they entertained the crowd at Le National with their various dance styles. Besides the music and the dancing, thes show also had another great virtue: the engaging presence of the band.  I’ve seen a lot of shows lately, at the Jazz Fest and at Nuits D’Afrique, and Black Umfolosi standout as the group that I saw which was most successful in developing a warm and intimate rapport with the audience. They talked of their homeland and of Montreal, and were extremely funny when they danced and sang, describing and imitating, through movement, humorous situations. Most groups see it as pivotal to establish a connection with the audience, and sometimes their efforts, and the audiences, can seem a little forced. But not so with Black Umfolosi, who seemed very natural and authentic in their affection. Their music, which featured strong voices surrounded by silence, encouraged a sense of intimacy.

Black Umfolosi started their set with a song about a steam train, acting out the movements of being on a train (including the conductor’s steam whistle pulling) and thus producing some very martial-arts style dancing. They followed this with a haunting song filled with sadness and hope about being alone in the darkness and crying all night, and being rescued by the love of friends. The lights on the stage were very dim, and you couldn’t see their faces, giving the song a very mysterious feeling. They then sang a song about Zimbabwe and it became apparent by some of the jubilant cries that went out that they weren’t the only people from there. They encouraged people to dance, saying it didn’t matter what style we danced, and then they made fun of the crowd, saying the Montreal way to dance was to cross one’s arms and tap one’s foot. I thought that was pretty funny, and I’m sure in Zimbabwe the crowd reacts a lot more physically, but their music really didn’t strike me as dancy at all, so I just danced in the Montreal style. Then they sang the old national anthem of Zimbabwe, to more cries of excitement from the Zimbabweans in the audience. When they announced a song about flirting with a woman, I noticed a fair number of women getting excited around me.

After a brief interlude, the band sang a song about summer, and each member of the group took a turn at center stage and danced in his own fashion. The crowd went wild for their dancing and the humour they conveyed through it. After this came a number of songs with interesting lyrics, speaking of parties in Zimbabwe, orphan lives and the instability of the current political scene. Starting to wrap things up, they bust out “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” encouraging everyone to sing, and I was happy to oblige (it was my favorite song as a child). Just when I thought it was about to end, the group busted out some gumboot dancing, which is and amazing dance style similar to tap except with gumboots being slapped by ones hands to create a rhythm. They were all decked out in coal miner suits, since the gumboot evolved from coal miners in South Africa who would dance along to the work songs they’d chant.

All in all, it was a great show, and although the music was not very energetic, the onstage presence of the group was as good as onstage presence can be, with the dancing bringing a lively feel to the night. Black Umfolosi is not the kind of group you would see for dancing or partying, but a great band to sit back and appreciate on a more reflective, spectator level. I also noticed that the ladies went wild when the performers took their shirts off and I wondered if this was like the South African equivalent of a boy band. Five guys who just sing and do choreographed dancing together…Sound familiar?

Check out Andrij on the West African Hour every Wednesday from 12-1pm

By Simon Howell - A Listening Ear - 07/07/2008

Since the late 90's, Calexico -- formed by Joey Burns and John Convertino of Giant Sand -- have been steadily churning out their own blend of horn-infused folk-rock, which touches on traditional Mexican music as well as more typical American folk influences. Their live show, as it turns out, is a fairly straightforward replica of their recorded sound, albeit with a few left turns here and there.

One of them came at the show's very outset, with Burns and Convertino entering alone to play a quick little surf-rock instrumental. Afterwards, the other four members strolled onstage to main the guitars, horns and pedal steel as the set began in earnest. Feast of Wire, their breakthrough, still holds a considerable sway over their setlist, including spirited takes on "Quattro (World Drifts In)" and "Black Heart." The highlight of the Feast material, however, was definitely the radically transformed "Not Even Stevie Nicks" -- a modest acoustic ditty on record, here performed as a three-guitar monster of a track.

At least one track from the upcoming Carried to Dust was performed -- a tricksy little number called "Two Silver Trees," indicating a continuation of the more strongly song-based approach evidenced on their most recent release, Garden Ruin. The set also featured two prominent covers -- Love's "Alone Again Or" (which is featured on their Convict Pool EP), and Bob Dylan's "Going to Acapulco," which they had previously recorded with My Morning Jacket's Jim James for the I'm Not There soundtrack. For help on the latter, they brought openers Woodpigeon onstage to sing backup and play violin, upping the onstage personnel to twelve for that particular number.

Special mention must be made of Burns, who has to be one of the most polished live singers I've ever witnessed. While he was aided by Le National's fine acoustics and routinely excellent sound work, he was always pitch-perfect and confident on the mic (though his stage moves verged on the corny at many instances). The trumpet work, which was featured on nearly every track they played, was also phenomenal. Calexico's appeal is based more on their "indie-mariachi" sound than on individual songs so naturally some sections of the set ran together (something that could have been fixed with a little setlist manipulation). Regardless, their dogged professionalism and lush instrumentation make them a must-see act for any fans of folk-based music, even if they'll likely leave many hip types cold.

Tune in to A Listening Ear with Simon every Friday  from 2pm - 4pm