The first thing I usually do once I get inside a concert venue is take a quick look around to make sure the place won't fill up too fast and I will be stuck squished in between a frat boy and his drunk girlfriend. Nope, it looked good. I was surprised that there wasn't a longer line to enter when doors opened, but it is a Monday night, I guess. Then, I scope out the merchandise table and see what is being peddled for the night. Usually, it's some mediocre t-shirts and a CD or two. Def Jux must have brought a whole van to store all the gear they were selling: a poster, vinyls, numerous nice looking shirts, Aes' whole back catalog as far as I could tell (except Float), plus a few nice surprises. He was selling legit copies of Appleseed, which I had thought was out of print, and the limited edition Jeremy Fish collaboration. The crappy part about the shirts was that they were sold out of all men's sizes for everyone's shirt (Cage, Cardboard City, Aes), except for XXL.

Next came the waiting game where you have about an hour before the openers come on. I was positioned nicely in the middle about two rows of people back. This is always a gamble because inevitably there will be some punk who weasels his way up in front of me by the time the headliner is on. So, I normally just position myself the best I can and then hope for the best. Apparently it was not to be.

By the time Blockhead came on with DJ Signify, some already-drunk LA-poseur came with his girlfriend and stood in front of me. I moved to keep out of his way and to keep a line of sight to the stage, trying to avoid his sweaty bald head from entering my line of sight. But, even without the distractions of the meathead yelling at his girl to "go get me a drink", Blockhead was a let down. After seeing RJD2 and DJ Shadow, maybe that was to be expected, but I still hoped for the best. I like his production on None Shall Pass, but his set had no structure to it at all. It was basically a couple looped beats (which got old) and his DJ on top scratching once in a while. No ebb and flow, no build up and release like I was hoping for. There were a few nice moments, like his interweaving both Queen's We Will Rock You and Another Bites the Dust in, plus the not-very-original-but-still-enjoyable-each-time mix of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean that seems to be a DJ staple.

Next up, the unfortunately-named Yak Ballz came on to do the pre-hypeman set for Cage. I haven't heard any of Yak's solo stuff at all, so I was totally unprepared, but the Weatherman songs never did much for me (yet, I love Cage and Aes now, go figure). He was good enough that I am now curious and will probably try to download a few of his tracks. After his 2 or 3 songs, the stage goes dark with red stage lights and I knew Cage's Good Morning was coming. My first thought when I saw him was, "wow, he looks like a wild-eyed, slightly demented, chubby Leonardo DiCaprio". After I got over that shock, I just listened to him blast out a ton of Hell's Winter tracks. He just straight-up ripped them. It was immense. People in the section I was in were going crazy, moshing to the psychotic rants of this slightly Daniel Johnson-esque individual (he even wore a Johnson t-shirt, as if the similarities weren't patentedly obvious).

Apparently, sometime during the Cage's set bald fratboy's girlfriend shimmied her way to the front by trying to physically touch any performer on stage and then wedging herself wherever she could. She also kept hanging on some guy who I am pretty sure the only reason she was touching/hugging/fondling was because he had prime viewing position.

Aesop Rock comes out to the call-and-response hook of "How alive/Too alive" from Keep Off of the Lawn and he kept most of the momentum from there, cherry-picking tracks from his newest CD seemingly at will to keep the crowd the most hype. And hype they were. Baldy had a few more shots and then after waving his arms around with a full cup of beer, he took a sip, and dropped it on the floor covering everyone's shoes in the vicinity. He didn't seem to mind (alcohol does that to you, I suppose). However, it was the crowd-surfers that really got to me. At one point during 39 Thieves there were at least 3 crowd-surfers in my immediate vicinity. One with a bottle of beer in his hand. Which he proceeded to pour all over the front of my shirt and on a few others as he sailed over top of us. At that point I decided the great vantage point wasn't really worth it and I pushed myself out of the front section.

Standing in the back for the last half of the show worked out much better. I still could see everything on stage, plus I had a better view of the visuals on the projection screen. Aes whipped out some classics including a sped-up version of No Regrets and his half of We're Famous, which he killed. But, it also just reminded me that I missed El-P when he came through DC for his last tour...

DJ Big Whiz did a brief intermission, Rob Sonic did some songs and then Aes closed with Coffee, which was expected, but still good. Aes came back up for a one-song encore: Daylight, which he can't seem to get away from. He did it straight-up, classic-style which was nice, although I am sure it gets old for him.

My second-guessed decision to wear flip-flops (standing for 3 hours in flip-flops is a terrible idea) actually turned out to be quite serendipitous because there was a summer-storm when I was leaving the club. Unfortunately for myself I had to get on the metro, otherwise I would miss the last train and be forced to take a taxi home, so I ran through the pelting rain to the station. Once I got there, the rain was already petering out...

Adam and I had a great weekend in Philadelphia! On Friday night we went to the Mann Center to see Neko Case & Rufus Wainwright. It was probably the best concert I have ever been to. Rufus had the most fantastic encore; see it here on youtube. Now I can't wait for his Judy Garland CD/DVD to come out!

On Saturday morning we went to the Dinosaur show, and it was pretty spectacular.









The photos didn't come out so well because it was dark and we were a little far away, but the website has some great videos.

As for the rest of the weekend, it was nice and laid back, and the weather was just beautiful. It almost feels like fall is coming!

There was a recent link on reddit.com to a list of the top 100 record sales from Amazon.com that are "RIAA-safe". Meaning, I think, that the labels that put out said record is not affiliated with the RIAA, and by that inaction they are somehow opposed to the strong-arm tactics the RIAA proposes as a result of the "terrorist" actions of people trying to use the Fair Use clause in the copyright laws.

Barring whether any of that previous statement was true or factually correct, the comments to the article are what baffled me the most. One in particular, actually, which stated something to the effect of: "I have never heard of anyone on that list. Thank the Lord the RIAA exists, because how else would I find out about music except through the radio and PR?" Assuming that this person is not trolling, apparently the perception is that without A&R folks in the record company, without radio payola, and without the giant PR machine of the record companies no one would ever find any new music.

The irony, at least as I see it, is that the list linked to is a result of a self-selecting group of people who are finding good music that isn't being forced down the throat of consumers. Why isn't this list as beneficial to consumers as the Billboard Top 100? Or what some record company paid to get played on the radio? Why is significance betrothed on the decisions that the A&R folks make and not on the mass collective who shop at Amazon? Or read pitchfork?

It seems like this is a direct consequence to the long tail that Amazon does so well and which is so lacking in mainstream radio/MTV. Embracing the long tail is a perfect solution: because of the virtually unlimited shelf space that Amazon has, the record companies are prevented from bribing Big Box stores to push their artists which forced the niche labels out in the process. Now however, there is an instant leveling of the playing field. Or at least the proverbial mountain just became a really big hill.