Show Roundup: Mos Def and Erykah Badu

Fans of Mos Def and Erykah Badu got a fantastic treat at the Hollywood Palladium recently with performances by headliner Mos Def and by the almost legendary Erykah Badu.

Of course, they had to wait for it, as the sold-out show ran almost 2 hours late at one point. This was probably caused in part by one unknown rapper who took the stage at the time that artist Jay Electronica was supposed to begin. He showed up, rapped, and walked off - no name, no lights no nothing.

Opener Jay Electronica was quite simply a waste of time, with a disjointed show, decent raps but generally a boring presentation end-to-end, rife with cliches and a dash of too much jack, which you could smell from the first two rows.

Erykah Badu presented another fantastic performance, although less eclectic in the costuming than past performances. Her backing "band" called the Cannabinoids were funny in presentation, giving each man a character personality which was quite humorous. Technofiles would love this performance, as Badu was backed by no less than eight laptops and five keyboards (no real instruments were used in the making of this concert) - all Macs with one HP.

Our favorite performance was definitely the Badu version of NWA's Gangsta Gangsta.

Mos Def did a decent performance. Wasn't great, wasn't good. But was just too, too late, as his show was scheduled to end at midnight, yet didn't even start at midnight. We didn't stay for his two hour performance, but you find this kind of lazy showrunning at many hip-hop shows, which, we believe, is a complete condesending act against the fans and audience.

Who cares, right? He already got your money.

On the web:

Mos Def
Erykah Badu

Sign of the Times

It's not a good thing, these times we're in.

I was in Hermosa Beach and my favorite punk rock, counter-culture store, Greeko's is literally half the size. All of the killer threads and kicks are gone, as well as the awesome pool table.

I did shots of The Dollyrots for one of their publicity campaigns here. Now it's a shitty smoke shop.

Half the stores are closed, including one where some smoking hot chick in a tiny skirt and bare feet wanted me to come in to hang out and to show me her bikini-area tattoo (presumably because she saw mine and wanted to share).

Another sign is when the online calendar for the Viper Room, usually just chock full of events for the month, is barely full. Not good at all.

This recession is definitely bad news.