On Monday night, my friend Eric and I went to the Lupe Fiasco concert at House of Blues. We began at Jerry Remy's...a classic Boston sports bahh, where the Patriots were heading off their season in Florida against the...Florida....football .....team?
Anyway, I really love being in the Fenway region, especially when Boston teams are playing and energy is high. We skipped on down to the show and found our spots in the back of the hall, behind the sound board. Ive seen a number of shows at House of Blues, and have always opted for the crammed-in-the-middle-and-can barely-move- spots down in front of the stage. We stood way in back this time, where we could see the whole stage and all of the performers, instead of just flailing arms and the huge, sweaty heads of the people in front of us.
Lupe Fiasco is from Chicago, signed with Atlantic records in 2005 and produces/performs hip-hop. At 29, he can put on a great high-energy show,; his stage presence felt more like a 23 year old. The set was really good, and although a lot of the songs sounded the same, they were all performed really well. Sarah Green was Lupe's badass backup singer, who-throughout the whole show remained animated and alive...and super badass. I would have liked to hear her voice better; "Daydream" is one of my favorite Lupe songs because of Jill Scott's crazy female solo in the middle, but I was disappointed when they performed it because I could barely here her. Some highlights in the set were "The Show Goes On, Superstar...in which the whole crowd joined in a monstrous chorus..., Superstar, Kick Push and and a bunch more from his album, "Lasers"
Instead of a DJ, which is what one might expect at a Lupe Fiasco concert, he had a full band- keys, bass, guitar, drums, three backup singers and a violinist. I liked how he involved his band during the show; many times he walked up to the guitar and bass players and danced along side them or mimicked their moves. At one point about halfway through the concert, Lupe made the crowd go silent and introduced the violinist (a Berklee Grad.) He proceeded to jump into the center of the stage and break out into an amazing hip hop solo. I captured some of it on video, but you will have to please excuse my language. It was so beautiful and I got really excited. Gosh, I love strings in hip hop (also Check out Miri Ben Ari, another really awesome hip hop violinist).
As the show went on, you could tell Lupe became more comfortable with his audience, and began joking around...particularly with an older woman in the front row--who just so happened to have been Fiasco's flight attendant on one of his trips. The rest of the show was sprinkled with his remarks to her-reminding her to hook him up with free plane tickets.
All-in-all, Fiasco was Fantastico and being there reminded me that I JUST LOVE hip-hop shows. I went to see Talib Kweli a few months ago at Paradise, which was smaller, but really really good. and before that, the almighty Miss Lauryn Hill in Atlantic City- a show I will never forget (see earlier post).
And so we all left, flooding onto Landsdowne street, me, shaking my ass like Rihanna and contemplating the start of my rapping career.
Cheers!
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