"Emotional Baggage Bard Tour" 2/2/17 Day 1: Hanging with Heroes and Friends in New Haven, CT
"Emotional Baggage Bard Tour" Day One Hanging with Heroes in New Haven:
Esh The Monolith, a Boston-based emcee, might have been my favorite performance between the musicality of his performance (using pedals for vocal effects life, playing an omnichord life and using mallets on a floor tom), his varied selection of deliveries through which he shared his strongly poetic command of language. The uniqueness of his approach and even the wide variety of topics and personalities his song content took on (from mortality to social criticism to flexing and goofing off with rap bars over Timbaland beats and poetic descriptions etc) was inspiring.
Dope KNife performed the next set, which are always really impressive. He uses all of his the tricks in his deep bag full of them. Opening with an a capella piece, rapping aggressively over his well-produced instrumentals, involving the crowd and doing interactive freestyle games he is just admirably well rounded and unabashedly displays his firm grasp on the many feathers in his cap. He never shies away from working the crowd, freestyling, showing his writing skills in the minimalist slam poetry style or the high intensity rapping and yelling of his songs in any show I've seen him perform and that sort of brave consistency is something that makes him such a great performer to catch.
During my set I performed mostly songs from the new album, which was a lot of fun to just get loose in a new venue among a handful of rappers and writers that I enjoy and respect! In the middle of my set, Dodgy Sorts came in which was a nice surprise and threw a bunch more energy into my set. Here was my setlist...
Sketch Tha Cataclysm finished off the show with his signature high-octane densely written raps delivered with technicality while stage antics and witty, sarcastic banter populated the spaces between the impressively woven songs.
Greetings AllOne Family!
I've embarked on my first tour of the year! The "Emotional Baggage Bard Tour" (in reference to my song "Travel Baggage (Carry On)" This is yet another independently arranged venture with the help of some friends. I'm back to reporting my thoughts and adventures and fun encounters hopefully for your amusement and some form of a travelogue brochure for when you find yourself in these areas as well as an opportunity for me to share some of the things I've been excitedly consuming, be it art or information or even food! There were a lot of difficulties in devising this tour, a few people dropped out and some promoters and venues never got back to me, but there were enough events to seek out to keep me busy and traveling, although 50% of the events ended up being open mic performances, I've often found these to be equally or more productive socially, artistically and financially than booked shows at venues.
The absurdly devised little route:
2/2 Stella Blues in New Haven, CT with Zak G, Dope KNife, Sketch The Cataclysm and more
2/3 Open Mic Feature at Everett in Rhode Island with Drent and Kleen Kutt
2/5 Alchemy in Providence Rhode Island with Drent and Kleen Kut
2/6 Madcap Monday feature in Providence Rhode Island
2/7 Inspired Word NYC at Parkside Lounge, Lower East Side
2/8 FUNK N WAFFLES Syracuse, NY
2/9 Hudson River Coffee House Albany, NY
2/11 Beshures House Show, Rochester, NY
2/15 Broadway Arts Spoken Word (open mic) Kingston, NY
2/3 Open Mic Feature at Everett in Rhode Island with Drent and Kleen Kutt
2/5 Alchemy in Providence Rhode Island with Drent and Kleen Kut
2/6 Madcap Monday feature in Providence Rhode Island
2/7 Inspired Word NYC at Parkside Lounge, Lower East Side
2/8 FUNK N WAFFLES Syracuse, NY
2/9 Hudson River Coffee House Albany, NY
2/11 Beshures House Show, Rochester, NY
2/15 Broadway Arts Spoken Word (open mic) Kingston, NY
Late Departure for a Northbound Journey
Admittedly, it took me longer than expected to depart for this trip on Thursday between packing in the morning and having to get my tires checked and my oil changed last minute. I had planned on leaving early but I'm just trying to be responsible okay? With any luck this brilliant little keychain of a car will last me quite a long time! While I was waiting for the time at the to get done I went to the gym in an attempt to be more productive and make up for the two weeks I missed while I was .
On my drive to New Haven, CT I listened to the following podcast episodes:
In these pressing and intense times of the new administration, I've been trying to be more aware of political events. Are there any current events/political podcasts you listen to and recommend? My friend Phil, an editor at New York Post and drummer of The Vigilance Committee recommended the following podcasts to me and I've been enjoying them/trying to keep up with/catch up with the political realm and state of affairs.
After a lengthy ride to Connecticut, where I managed to somehow hit traffic perfectly as some karmic punishment for my late start, I arrived at Stella Blues for the first show. What's funny about this is when I was on tour in November and trouncing about with my gregarious friend Annie (Read about that HERE) she dragged me abruptly into this venue to inquire about booking me there and the ornery owner declared that the venue was closed! A few weeks later, Dope KNife called me up and told me he had this show for me at the very same venue. Here we are.
Stella Blues with Zak G, Esh, Dope KNife and Sketch The Cataclysm
I want to take a second to talk about Dope KNife and how incredible he has been doing lately, first off as a rapper, a producer, a performer and freestyler he is just all around crazily talented (not to mention he makes his own videos and often his own artwork!). After running Dope Sandwich Records and Tapes for a decade, he is getting credit where it is overdue. In December, he released a phenomenal EP "Weekend at Brodie's" on Fake Four Inc. run by Ceschi based out of Connecticut and then just recently released an LP "1984" on the legendary Sage Francis' own Strange Famous Record's digital label in January. Both of these projects include raps and production by Kedrick and are released on two of the most important labels in underground hip hop. Getting to meet up and rock shows with him is always a pleasure and this time was no different. I've seen Zak G perform at Cafe Nine and Sketch Tha Cataclysm perform at The Outer Space a few months back when I freestyled spontaneous on stage with him and Joey Batts and some other cats after Ceschi shoved me up into a cypher! The only person who I didn't know in this line-up was Esh (or Esh the Monolith), although I am on a posse cut song with him and Zak G on KNife's new album called "#SQUADGOHARD". Also present and hanging out was Strange Famous Records' own Sage Francis, who is the main inspiration for me getting into hip hop (with his song "Makeshift Patriot") and eventually taking my writing down the road exploring rapping and song writing, so to have him casually in the crowd and hanging out was surreal and very special/encouraging. Take your favorite artist or practitioner in the craft or field that you value most and imagine getting to just kick it with them casually...that was what it was like for me, even though we didn't get to speak at length.
Zak Green opened up the show with his unique combination of self-produced noise music/punk and hip hop intensely rapped and screamed over with acerbic evaluations of society and hip hop music and cynically running the gamut of keen grips and criticisms.
Esh The Monolith, a Boston-based emcee, might have been my favorite performance between the musicality of his performance (using pedals for vocal effects life, playing an omnichord life and using mallets on a floor tom), his varied selection of deliveries through which he shared his strongly poetic command of language. The uniqueness of his approach and even the wide variety of topics and personalities his song content took on (from mortality to social criticism to flexing and goofing off with rap bars over Timbaland beats and poetic descriptions etc) was inspiring.
Dope KNife performed the next set, which are always really impressive. He uses all of his the tricks in his deep bag full of them. Opening with an a capella piece, rapping aggressively over his well-produced instrumentals, involving the crowd and doing interactive freestyle games he is just admirably well rounded and unabashedly displays his firm grasp on the many feathers in his cap. He never shies away from working the crowd, freestyling, showing his writing skills in the minimalist slam poetry style or the high intensity rapping and yelling of his songs in any show I've seen him perform and that sort of brave consistency is something that makes him such a great performer to catch.
During my set I performed mostly songs from the new album, which was a lot of fun to just get loose in a new venue among a handful of rappers and writers that I enjoy and respect! In the middle of my set, Dodgy Sorts came in which was a nice surprise and threw a bunch more energy into my set. Here was my setlist...
Sketch Tha Cataclysm finished off the show with his signature high-octane densely written raps delivered with technicality while stage antics and witty, sarcastic banter populated the spaces between the impressively woven songs.
Also, while setting up my merch table I was beatboxing and ended up drawing the attention of this guy Vaughn who I chatted with on and off for the remainder of the night and we exchanged some podcasts that we liked and then he invited me on a podcast, then we recorded a little beatbox collaboration freestyle outside on the street. What a cool guy and series of interactions brought together by a shared interesting in eavesdropped beatboxing and the willingness to be social!
Here are some of Vaughn's podcast suggestions:
Overall the event was a good time full of respectable (and even rarer, respectful) rap talent. I couldn't have asked for a more fun and encouraging start to a tour among friends. We all packed up our merch at 1 AM or so and wished friends old and new safe journeys. We were all set to scatter into varied directions on various musical and personal journeys through the bitter cold twilight. I headed to Rhode Island to meet with Owen only to find myself exhausted too exhausted to safely drive and so I opted to nap in the back seat of a park and ride off of the seemingly infinite I-95. Stuffed into a sleeping bag and huddled into the backseat of my miniature chariot, I fell asleep, putting day one of the tour behind me with, leaving it to my quickly encouraging REM to embed and ruminate on my encouraging new memories.
Thank you for reading and joining my journeys as always!
I hope you take up my invitation to enjoy the plethora of new media that I've encountered through the links littered throughout these accounts!
Until next time...
-Bruce "AllOne" Pandolfo
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