all photos: Nick Balleza
all words: Phil Runco
Early last month Ticket Alternative was kind enough to let me know that tickets to Friday's Das Racist show at Rock and Roll Hotel were "selling fast." Don't wait! Act now! A week out though, tickets for the concert - which eventually did sell out - were still available. While we can of course correlate Ticket Alternative's excitability with its vested interest in advanced sales, I don't doubt that a large chunk of tickets dried up shorty after they went on sale: Das Racist is a group tailored to create and engage fanboys.
The hip-hip duo's mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man - both released last year - are about as dense as they come. Each pushing 80 minutes, the albums relentlessly overflow with the kind of scattershot pop cultural, academic, and rap references that inspire - and maybe even require - hours of repeated listening to unpack and decode.
But perhaps unsurprisingly for a group that has so consistently thumbed its nose at the conventions of the music industry -publicity included - Das Racist showed little interest in engaging those fans, or anyone for that matter, on Friday night. The only people Das Racist appeared eager to please were Das Racist. The duo - joined by hype man Dapwell - took the stage after midnight, clutching Tecate tallboys and, in at least one case, looking uncomfortably stoned. (That MC, the doughy Heems, struggled to keep both eye lids ajar over the course of the paltry 45-minute set).
From opener "Who's That" Brooown!" on, any cleverness or humor to its songs were lost in the sloppy mumble with which Heems and Kool A.D. delivered them. Joining in on nearly every line, Dapwell did little more than muddle communication further. The group couldn't even be bothered to bring the requisite DJ along, instead selecting backing tracks from a laptop and explaining to the audience, "This is the sound of us making three or four more hundred dollars."
That kind of fuck-all indifference, and Das Racist's willingness to acknowledge it, is worth a laugh, but it's a cheap and obvious laugh. Das Racist urged fans to heckle them at shows over the course of last year, and it continued that provocation on Friday, inciting fans at outset: "Everybody go, 'Boo! You suck!'" But expectations of Das Racist at the outset of 2010 and now are different. Whether Das Racist likes it or not, the group isn't just a joke upstart defined by a novelty songs anymore; it's not in a position where people are attending its concerts purely out of curiosity. Sit Down, Man was one of the best rap releases of last year, and people heard it. Offering what at best could described as half-assed performance art to them live is a cop out.
Previously in Live DC:
- 5/17: Gay Best Weekend Bets: Avengers Edition
- 5/17: LiveDC: Here We Go Magic @ Black Cat
- 5/17: LiveDC: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros/ Fool's Gold @ 930 Club
- 5/16: LiveDC: Mark Lanegan @ 930 Club
- 5/16: LiveDC: Horse Feathers @ Black Cat
- 5/16: LiveDC: M. Ward/ Lee Ranaldo @ 930 Club
- 5/16: Photos: Dance In The Circle @ Dupont Circle
- 5/16: LiveDC: The Cranberries @ 930 Club
- 5/15: LiveDC: Esperanza Spalding @ Howard Theatre
- 5/15: LiveDC: Opeth & Mastodon @ Fillmore
God loves a cheerful giver.
Their on stage antics were no match for their total incoherence at the afterparty later that night.
yup.
i luv this set! awesome photos!
Not attending FTW, I knew they couldn't match their mixtape glory. Backpack dorm rappers.
The show was awesome! If you were feeling Ashok's shirt check out the new DC based clothing brand NativeDanger at http://nativedanger.com/
yo i feel like this is some sort of photo homage to vic. dude's like 3/4 of the shots. you know heems is in the band too, right?
167463 @lulu: After running some forensic evidence and shadow analysis it appears the photographer was on the right side of the stage. It also appears Vic was on the right, while Heems on the left . Without jumping to conclusions, I would hypothesize that photos of the closer person would be more dynamic.
BYT may not have sent a lone gunman, but it did send a lone shooter
167476 @CSI: DC: Ding-ding-ding - you are correct. You win a ham sandwich.
Most of my shots were made from the right of the stage. I was only able to wedge myself towards the left a little before the encore. Himanshu stayed mostly to the left, with Vic and Dap usually in front of him from my vantage point.
(and really, Vic stole the show, his antics produced the most interesting photos)