Live DC: Bone Thugs / Monster Maker @ 9:30 Club

December 28, 2007 by Abby  Send to a Friend

All photos: Fitsum Belay

Bone Thugs n Harmony played at the 9:30 Club last night. They just released Strength and Loyalty, their 8th (?) full-length album, not including greatest hits, and from the couple singles I’d heard on the radio, it sounds pretty good. Now, to be honest, I kind of lost track of Bone Thugs shortly after E 1999 Eternal with a brief revival a couple years ago when i rediscovered that one Mariah Carey single, “Breakdown.” That is a really good song.

So when I heard they were in town, my eyebrows raised, and when BYT asked if I was interested, I figured why not. I got there around 9:15 and stood in line for nearly 40 minutes to miss the opening act (Sharkey). Damn.

(but there are photos!)

Self-consciously huddling in packs outside the entrance were a whole lot of white boys, home for Winter break from colleges around the region I suppose. They wore baggy jeans, New Balances, and hoodies with the colors of the Terps, Virginia Tech, UVA, etc. The girls, on the other hand, wore considerably less. There were these two girls behind me in line, dressed in kleenex, wobbling and screaming, “I have to peeeeeee” and “Bitch, if you were any drunker, i’d have to kill you.” She did, eventually, pee on the wall toward the back of the line.

Once inside, I went upstairs to find a bomb spot front and center on the upper balcony. The stage was empty except a table with the decks on a raised platform. The guy next to me had the sales sticker prominently displayed on the underside of the bill of his black upturned Nationals cap. Just as he caught me staring, DJ Ice came out and the show started.

Krayzie, Layzie, and Wish Bone(s) came out on stage one at a time, each jumping into a verse of “Flomotion” like all stars running out of the locker room and onto the court. Wish worked the left side of the room, Layzie worked the right, and Krayzie got really really high and had to lean on the DJ booth for a while.

IMHO, hip hop shows are fun because more often than not there are multiple performers on stage at once, and they switch it up with cameos and guests, unexpected samples, and engaging stage banter. Given these standards, I think they put on a pretty good show. They brought back to life Eazy E, Biggie, and Tupac on their respective tracks. They projected green lights onto the back curtain to resemble two giant marijuana leaves hanging down for “Notorious Thugs.” They slowed it down with the heartfelt “I Tried,” sans Akon.

(sidebar: Bone Thugs released their movie of the same name this fall. The plot is supposed to center on the question, “Boarding a bus bound for Los Angeles, BTNH had a plan to get an audience with Eazy E and get signed to Ruthless Records…. What if that bus left without them and they never got out of Cleveland?” I don’t know why I haven’t seen it yet).

They stopped the show to serenade a couple girls in the front row with short samples of “Buy U a Drank.” They pitted the ladies against the thugs, the balcony against the floor, and everyone against everyone else to “Hold up. Wa-ait” and see who could make the loudest noise.

The show unfortunately ended with dozens of very young girls jumping up on stage to grind on each other, sloppily make out, and otherwise shame the entire female sex in the desperate hope of getting invited back to the Thugs’ hotel. I was not among them. This pimply-faced dungeon master in front of me yelled, “show us your tits!” and I decided right then to leave before I cried or punched someone. Then Fits and I went to DC9 and played Van Halen and Kieth Sweat (December 29 at Constitution Hall!) on the jukebox. The rest probably waited around choking on swisher sweets, holding down their erections, and calling each other faggots. Thug love 4eva.

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(see full photoset here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sexyfitsum/sets/72157603560982264/)

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