Rusko, on fire

I still remember the first poster I saw for a Rusko show in Toronto... I don't remember where it was, but I remember it was on a small black and white sticker and happened I think in April of 2008, and that even though I saw it everywhere for a while I still managed to miss that show.

I haven't passed up my past two opportunities though, and through my internship with Mad Decent I shot some video to share with y'all. The Mod Club show in October was definitely massive, and I have a three-camera shoot of it sitting on some DV tapes - I unfortunately do not have the time right now to edit or even capture that footage.

What I do have is a few choice clips from his appearance at The Social last March. Yes, the sound system blew out (something about faulty UK power converters, I heard) but he still rocked it - cueing tunes off his laptop while playing along with an MPD32 and live bass guitar! It's uncut/edited video, and amped up on the brightness/contrast to help compensate for the dark environment of The Social, but it's still a great shot of dude's performance style, so enjoy!

And if you're in Toronto this Saturday, get ready for this times a hundred (or technically times 14.682, venue capacity wise) when he comes to Sound Academy with Krazy Baldhead and a bunch of great local DJ/producers for the launch of Embrace's Digital Saturdays. More info on any one of the many, many facebook event pages here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=246092228877

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225803845768

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=242053977466

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=262863427999

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=406634345006

Act Like You Know!

So I'm out on a flyer/poster mission last night and find myself on the corner of Richmond and Peter...

And I think I hear a little bit of this coming from someone's car...

So I was all like:

And turned to the guy in the car and said something like "that's a great song!" And he was all:

I said "DJ Blaqstarr! Tote It!" Him:

Then the song played out for a few more measures and I realized it was actually this:

But I was like "Still! Big song!" Quoth the gino:

So now I'm practically jumping up and down in the middle of Club District in the middle of the night, shouting at this guy about how I'm trying to compliment him on his music and he doesn't even know what it is he's listening to.

On another note, I also found myself in front of this place last night...

Apparently there was a huge extended hours dubstep party there that I hadn't heard a word of.

I just think it's crazy how a year-and-a-half ago, when I was first getting in to dubstep, it was almost impossible to find a place in Toronto to go to for it. Now you can just have a random party on a Tuesday night with absolutely no promotion and bring out a couple hundred random hipsters and yuppies who don't even know what DJs are playing. I asked!

Also last night, Cajmere was performing at Ultra:

As awesome as that song is though, I'm not too upset about missing that one because I'm pretty sure they won't let you in the door at Ultra unless yer over 25 and think that makes you better than everyone.

Wale in Toronto vs Wale in Baltimore

So a little over a month ago I got to see Wale & UCB Go-Go Band play in Toronto. Mainly I wanted to go support since we were born in the same area (Montgomery County, Maryland). I'll admit I hadn't really followed the dude's hype, and I'll also admit that I never heard go-go until a Lil Jon / DJ Flexx collabo on Crunk Juice that I actually mistook for Bhangra influence at first. Anyway, the show was great, rather mindblowing actually. But I was not happy with Toronto's reception at all, so when I was back home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for Memorial Day weekend, and saw he was playing in Baltimore...

Here's a point-by-point comparison of those two concerts:

VENUE

Toronto: The Mod Club, capacity 600

Baltimore: Sonar (Club Room), capacity 300

I thought Sonar's location was pretty cool (a rather run-down looking area underneath a bunch of overpasses) and the inside was a lot more intimate. However, that also made it harder to get a good view  of the stage, and The Mod Club had better sound.

WINNER: Draw

OPENING ACTS

Toronto: Colin Munroe, DJ Mensa

Baltimore: Greenspan, Get 'Em Mamis with DJ Booman, Big Sean

Probably since it was a Sunday show, Toronto didn't get to have a ton of openers. Now I know everbody loves Colin Munroe and I'll agree that he looked like he was good at what he was doing on stage, I just personally wasn't excited to hear it, and went to get some food instead. DJ Mensa played a good set (as always) from what I can remember, but it was weird cuz I think he was tucked in that corner DJ booth or maybe somewhere else where you couldn't even see him.

Baltimore definitely had the better opening set, with locals Greenspan, G.E.M. and Booman. There was one dude wearing Underarmor that I heard hatin on the Get 'Em Mamis, but forget him. The other act, Big Sean, also performed really well considering they couldn't get the music working for most of his set - he ended up giving a mic to someone in the crowd to beatbox, and almost got random audience members to come up and play UCB's instruments until someone backstage brought out a laptop that worked.

WINNER: Baltimore

WALE'S ON-STAGE TWITTER USAGE

Toronto: seeing if Drake was around

Baltimore: fielding song requests

WINNER: Draw, just cuz I dunno if anybody wins with Twitter...

THE CROWD

This is what really made the difference. Toronto's crowd, which was about 80% white hipsters, had just a very strange way about them. I mean, it seemed like they were enjoying it, I guess. There was a good amount of applause and cheering in between songs, but during... Most everyone was just standing with their arms folded and watching. Maybe this is just me but if that's how you wanna go to a show, man just buy a DVD of the concert. Tell me how there's a go-go band up there, a band that specializes in playing one of the most inherently danceable forms of music, and there are what, six people in all of The Mod Club even noddin' their heads? There was a small group of a few people that were into it though, so props to them. But out of everybody else, the most reaction he got out of them was when he covered Justice, which I don't even think that was the best song he played by far. Not that this strange spectatorish crowd appeared to phase Wale or UCB that much - they still put on a great show, albeit making a "blunt, encore-less exit" as Exclaim put it. For a more full review though, checkout The Gunsmoke Mafia.

The Baltimore demographic was completely different, with whitey only making up like 20% of the room, and most of them fitting the stereotype of "college kid" rather than "hipster." Not that that's much better, I mean there were a couple people that were embarassingly drunk...it was kind of a problem. It was clear that the room was full of real Wale fans though, being within 50 miles of his hometown and all. There was even a point where the band took a break and the whole front row just sang one of his songs in its entirety. It was definitely a friendlier atmosphere, with a lot more conversation, and they played for at least an hour and half.

WINNER: Baltimore

Main Difference: Toronto had to be told when to put it's hands up; Baltimore knew.