Brightest Young Things

all words: Jeff Jetton
all photos: Nicole Aguirre

Everyone has a favorite concert of all time.  I've been to a lot of shows.  Architecture in Helsinki and Dan Deacon, both at the 9:30 club, were up there for me.  Cornelius and the Flaming Lips are two shows that come to mind as well.  But I still stand by the 1991 Anthrax/Public Enemy concert at Irvine Meadows in my hometown in Orange County, California as my all time favorite.

Not only because one of the greatest bands ever, Primus, opened the show, but also because, well, ANTHRAX and PUBLIC ENEMY, TOGETHER.  It was like peanutbutter and jelly for this fifteen-year old.  I remember how stoked I was when Primus came out for the finale to play slap-bass with the bands for their opus: Bring Tha Noize.  Here's some footage of that song from that tour.  You can see Les Claypool (of Primus) playing an accordian and Ice-T, well, just being Ice-T.

Fast forward 18 years and I'm back at a Public Enemy show.  This time with arrangements to interview both Chuck D and Flava Flav.  I'll be honest, I was more interested in interviewing S1W and Professor Griff, asking them what the hell they'd been up to the past few years, but it wasn't easy to get ahold of the Public Enemy publicist at the show because Virgin Mobile has somehow figured out a way to jam all iPhones at the festival.  Damn you, Richard Branson.

PE picked up right where they'd left off 18 years ago.  Always a call to arms, always a little bit funny and a little bit serious.  I can't watch their show without thinking of In Living Color and the Wayans Brothers and Jim Carrey doing his Firemarshall Bill impersonations, for some reason.  It's all part of this late 80's/early 90's soup that my brain kind of funnels into one large memory folder.  Remember Jamie Foxx as Wanda?

Flav was in full effect.  He can electrify a crowd.  I don't really care how many reality shows he has been/will be on (5 and counting, 'The Surreal Life', 'Strange Love', 'Flavor of Love', 'Under One Roof' and 'The Farm' in the UK) I hope that his legacy will remain as one of the founding members of one of the greatest hip hop bands of all time.

Flav and Chuck pulled no punches with the crowd, they were happy to be there and it showed.  The show started right on time, as witnessed by Flav's clock/necklace.

We left the show sufficiently hyped and ready to do our interviews.

As per usual, I didn't have many pre-written questions for either Flav or Chuck, I figured I'd just kind of wing it on the spot and see what type of ridiculous conversation I could get in with either/both of them.  Of course.  Of course Flava Flav never showed up for his interview.  Visions of Flav doing lines of coke off some trashy woman's breast just outside of the line of sight of the prying lenses of reality television cameras danced in our heads.  Alas, we just got bumped because Flav had a date with Richard Branson for some guest bartending at one of the many beer tents at Merriwether Post Pavillion.

I waited patiently for Chuck D behind five other 'reporters' or 'journalists' or whatever people call themselves these days, passing the time by taking silly pictures with Alex from Franz Ferdinand and giving Angela Valdez a hard time for her LNS story in the Washington City Paper.  If you never read that one, it's a gem.

Now don't get me wrong, I love me some Liz Glover.  She's my favorite journalist in DC.  But damnit if she didn't monopolize Chuck D's time and go over her alloted five minutes by an extra ten minutes.  I got this email from her the next day:

first, an apology. i cut the chuck d interview and realized i had 13+ minutes of footage. that is ridiculous. i had no idea the interview ran that long. i really did use up his time. i'm so so sorry about that!!!

It's so hard to be mad at Liz Glover.  She's so dreamy.  I couldn't really fault her, anyways.  Liz's employer, the Washington Times, and Public Enemy have a long, sordid history concerning a May 9, 1989 interview that went terribly awry, forcing one of the members to be ousted from the band.  In fact, this may be the first time a member of Public Enemy has spoken with the Washington Times in over twenty years. We could step aside and give them their moment to kiss and make up.  Plus, we got to watch Liz kick over Chuck's drink (strawberry lemonade).  Maybe fences weren't mended?

I've been kind of enjoying these predicaments lately, anyway.  Somebody once told me to take a shitty situation and use it to your advantage.  There were about four other people in front of me waiting to interview Chuck.  I could tell I was probably going to get the shaft, since we were last in line.  I just asked the publicist if I could get in one quick question and snap a couple of shots and be on my way.  They agreed to let us jump the queue and do a quick 1-minute interview in exchange for forgoing our longer interview.  Jackpot.

BYT's intrepid photographer, Nicole Aguirre (pictured above) and I downed our beers and went in for the kill*:

BYT:  Mr. D, you have what some have said are the biggest guns in hip hop.  In fact, I've never seen you in anything other than a sleeveless shirt, even in the dead of winter.  I'm just kind of wondering if you think you might actually be able to put those things to use should the situation arise, or if they are purely for display purposes.

Chuck D:  What the fuck?  Who do you think you are?

BYT:  Sir, just someone who appreciates a little bit of healthy competition and asks that his heroes put their money where their mouths are.  You flaunt those biceps like they are a pair of silicone breasts on a trophy wife, let's see if you can actually use them.

Chuck D:  You had better learn to respect your elders, son.  Let's do this.  You'd best get ready for an old-school ass-whoopin' from a real-life, old-school master.

BYT:  It is indeed on, then, Charles.

Chuck D:  Yeeeeeah boyeeeee!

BYT:  Please don't say that.

Yes, Chuck D beat me at arm wrestling.  A few things you'll want to notice in these pictures, though.  1)  I am left-handed, so he had a distinct advantage.  2) He was clearly cheating by lifting his elbow off the table.  Automatic FAIL.

There you have it, one public enemy interview, under wraps.  We were feeling good, inspired even.  Nicole said she wanted to shoot the Girl Talk show, and although I wanted to stick around and do another interview with another band, I relinquished, because I'd never seen Girl Talk and I had always heard he puts on an amazing show.

We made our way over to the West Stage to catch Girl Talk.  I was not really sure what to expect at .  As luck would have it, I once again ended up running into Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand in the crowd and we struck up a conversation while watching the show.

BYT:  Hey Alex, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions while we watch the show?

Alex from Franz Ferdinand:  Sitainly nit, guh raith aheed.

BYT:  What do you think of Girl Talk?  Is it your first time seeing them?

Alex:  Difanaetely nit wuth ah expectad.  It's mae furst taim seein' thim.  He rally gits the crude intae the music.  Eets quite gud.

BYT:  Yeah, the crowd is eating it up.  Perhaps it's that he's playing songs they already know and love, it's sort of a soundtrack to these kids' lives, all the greatest hits from their childhood up until now, mashed up into one gigantic dance party.  I can't really tell if it's cheating or not, but I've not seen someone make a crowd go apeshit like this in a long time.  Well, maybe at the Dan Deacon show.   Have you ever heard Dan Deacon?

Alex:  Ahm not reely familyar wit thim.  Whit's thur name agin?

BYT: Dan Deacon, this guy out of Baltimore, does this crazy stuff with the crowd, getting them to mimic his movements and things like that.

Alex: Ahh, aye, ah've heard of this guy.  He gits the audience tae participate in his shows, aye, ah'd like ta chick tha oot.

BYT:  Where are you guys staying?  Baltimore?

Alex:  Aye, wull, kindae clos tae hir, actually (Columbia, MD).  We ir git'n uptae Montreal timora.

BYT:  Oh, nice.  I love Montreal.  Have you tried the poutine?

Alex:  Poutine?  Ahh, aye, poutine!  Aye, that stooff is foockin' brilliant.

BYT:  It certainly is.  When are you guys playing?

Alex:  Right hare.  Right ifter Girl Talk is done.

BYT:  Alright, dude, it looks like these people want their picture taken with you.  Thanks for chatting with me.  Enjoy the show.

Alex: Aye, you, as well.

Sweet, two interviews under wraps.  I'd had about enough festival for one night, though.  It was time to beat the crowd (and unfortunately skip Franz Ferdinand) and jam it back to DC to get some sleep before work the next day.   We'll leave you with some more of Nicole's fantastic photo footage of the Girl Talk show.

Stay tuned til next week when we interview Motorhead's Lemmy.

*interviews paraphrased.  may not have been exact wording.

Previously in Live DC:

• 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
• 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
• 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
• 2/7: LiveDC: Augustana/ Graffiti6 @ 930 Club
• 2/6: LiveDC: All Things Go Presents: Reptar/ Casual Curious/ Fort Lean @ Gibson Guitar Showroom
• 2/6: LiveDC: TYCHO/ Beacon @ RNR Hotel
• 2/6: LiveDC: The Kills / Jeff The Brotherhood @ 9:30 Club