Spank Rock at the Mercury Lounge

(Photo taken by Oxy Cottontail)

Spank Rock, Live on Breezeblock BBC Radio February 26, 2006

Holy fucking shit! Spank Rock played the Mercury Lounge Saturday night, and New York City will never be the same. I've seen these guys many times now, rivaling my Kudu groupie status. This show was as good as I have ever seen Naeem, XXXchange and the Baltimore Bass Connection, it's just amazing to see how confident they've become, what a show they now put on. Ya hear that, sad-faced, quiet indie bands? A show, entertainment, a party.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. MC and I walked the few blocks to the venue on Houston at 9:30, figuring that we would get there just in time for the opener and claim our will-call tickets without a mad rush. To our surprise, there was almost no one there. Literally. The bar had a few people, the concert space looked empty. Oh, New Yorkers, why must you always be fashionably late?

After a few drinks, Cuizinier came on stage to a good-sized crowd. For those that don't know, he is a member of TTC, the Parisian rap group that has a decent following here in the States. Cuizi is the most talented member of the group, more talented with his flow and lyrics, a sorta laid-back, Twista-fast rap style. He put on a good show, and I was a little surprised to realize how many people are into his music. On the real, I cannot get enough of the French language, love hearing it, have become a total Francophile and DJ Orgazmic is excellent, dropping slow jams, snap rap, grime into his DJ set early and as instrumentals for Cuizinier.

After that, Philly's Plastic Little played. This might have been their most sober, accomplished performance I've seen them do. I'm a huge fan, although I know that their schtick doesn't go over well with everyone. The best thing about the music, beyond the hilarious lyrics and Beastie Boy line trading, are the beats by Squid. These are disgusting, dirty, heavy beats that sound so perfect to me, the kinda shit that seems more grime than hip hop. It was another great performance, although I was disappointed that they didn't play "Brooklyn", and a great chance for the group to play a bigger stage and get some much-warranted attention.

After another brief break, the Baltimore Bass Connection guys began to spin some tunes, dropping the Bmore club bangers and old 50s songs to get the crowd hyped. Suddenly, Naeem stepped on stage and the madness began. I'm going to do a post on the album, YoYoYoYoYoYo, so I won't delve too much into the music. Most of the songs were off of the album, but we were also blessed with a new song, "Make My Dick Turn Racist" (I think that's the title, it sounded like the refrain). Oh, and the jawn off of Low Budget and Aaron LaCrate's Gutter Music, "Blow", featuring a guest appearance by Amanda Blank. So good.

What I mainly wanted to discuss was how much fun this show was, how unlike a typical NYC show it was. People were actually dancing, at least up front where we were. At the end of the night, lots of people got up onstage and had an impromptu dance party. For like 20 minutes. It was so nice to be somewhere and not feel like everyone was worried about seeming uncool or being cynical or whatever. It was nice to go to a show to have fun, not show how cool and detached I can be. In essence, it was nice to have Philly in the house and showing why it is the best place in the world.

From there, everyone headed to the afterparty on Essex at a new club, after a stop at the excellent hot dog place Dash on Rivington. It was a good end to the night, as things were starting to get blurrier and blurrier. Shout out to R and her crew for doing it up big and bringing strength in numbers.

disco-not-disco was there. So was Absquatulation (5 out of 10, wuh?). I believe that we were standing next to Caps and Jones (in a beanie with propellor?). Oxy Cottontail was there and has amazing flicks from the entire evening. Drink Moloko also has a visual recap of the night. Who else was there? Holler.

[To Cuizinier: You are lucky that you made it out of that club, grabbing my girl's ass when I was getting drinks. Remember: if your jaws wired shut, you can't talk. You can't talk, you can't rap. Yamean?]

(One last photo taken by Roxy. Can you spot me in the audience?)