Can there be even MORE
content for you this weekend, gentle reader? Yes! This week I saw not one but
TWO concerts (and a dance event, but we don’t review dance here so let’s move
on).
Rather than review
these separately (and since I don’t have either one’s new release) I present…Concert
Battle!
Before we get to that
know that only a day ago the CD Odyssey had its first ever encounter
with…Christian rock! Intrigued by just what the hell I would say about such a
record? Simply scroll down after you read Concert Battle! and find out. You
will not be disappointed.
And now…Concert Battle!
On Monday I saw Katie Pruitt and on Tuesday I saw Ice Cube. Both were great but
who was better? Read on!
Height: Undisclosed (maybe 5'3")
Name:
Ice Cube
Style:
Hip Hop
Age:
54
Height: 5’8”
Analysis: Pruitt has the age advantage, but Cube has the
reach. Fortunately, there will be no fighting involved, rendering this
statistic completely irrelevant.
The venue
Capital Ballroom: Built in the 1920s, this iconic hall has had many renos and even
more names over the years. It currently holds up to 600 people, but I think
that would look very packed indeed. We got some plush seats in a banquette at
the back of the room which had a great view after finding our usual balcony
spots were grabbed by “others”.
Katie did not fill the venue and I’d say
there were maybe 100-150 in attendance. The bathrooms at the Capital are not
great, but I was good and dehydrated (by design) and didn’t need to brave them.
Memorial Arena: Built in 2005 (after much political toing and froing), the building
holds up to 7,400 but was configured for the show to allow about three quarters
of that. It was packed. Like all stadiums, the bathrooms are a true horror show,
but again forward planning precluded my attendance to them.
Our seats were stadium seats a ways from
the stage but at a very good height and angle for viewing.
Analysis: I
will always take a medium sized concert hall over a giant stadium, if only for
the sound. Packing the stadium isn’t the deciding factor here.
Winner: Pruitt.
The crowd
Katie Pruitt: Not surprisingly, a generally younger crowd of twenty and
thirty-somethings. You could tell they were true fans that were excited to see
the show, and the smaller number gave the event a nice intimacy. Everyone was
nice, and while there were same loud talkers at the back of the room, they were
doing it at the back of the room, which is the right place for such behaviour.
Also, they quietened down when Pruitt took the stage, so all good.
Ice Cube:
Also a younger crowd of twenty and thirty somethings, which was a bit more
surprising given Ice Cube made his most famous music in the eighties and
nineties and spent a lot of recent history making movies. This crowd, while
young, were not just there for the experience – you got a real sense these
folks LOVED Ice Cube.
The folks directly in front of us were
particularly awesome. It was two couples about our age and two young women I
think must’ve been their daughters. The one “mom” was clearly a hip hop fan
from back in the day, knowing every song and hitting the experience HARD.
Mom had raised those two young women right.
They knew every song within a few notes, singing along (in time) and
dancing with the enthusiasm of true believers who were there to see the show
and not just be seen being at a show.
Winner: Ice Cube
The Opener:
Katie Pruitt:
Katie Pruitt’s opener was a young
singer-songwriter from Nashville named Jack Van Cleaf who I instantly liked. He
sang clear and with the grace of a natural storyteller. The highlight song was
called “Cowboy” and sounded a bit like Blue Rodeo’s “5 Days in May”
and ended with an artful reference to Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty”.
Also good was “Rattlesnake” with
this sweet little lyric:
“Love is like a rattlesnake
Before it bites it tries to warn you.”
Van Cleaf’s band was a trio, where the bass
player added in a drum machine as needed. This was not annoying like you might
think. Katie Pruitt joined him on stage and did some dueting with him, but I
thought he was doing just fine on his own.
Ice Cube:
Ice Cube had a bunch of opening acts. The
two hip hop bands were “Peter Jackson” and a guy with the clever name of
“Merkules”. Also, we were treated to the DJing of some dude called DJ Young
Legend.
DJ Young
Legend just played the first third of various hit hip hop tracks from the past
thirty years or so and occasionally shouted at the fans to wave their hands
around. Many in the crowd seemed to love this, particularly the aforementioned
true fans directly in front of us. Watching them enjoy it so much and sing
along was much more fun than the actual package of tunes he rolled out. If I
wanted to listen to hip hop records, I can do that at home.
Of Peter Jackson and Merkules, I enjoyed Peter
Jackson much more. Pretty good flow, and an upbeat vibe.
Merkules admitted that his schtick is to take other people’s songs and riff off
of them live. This is exactly what he proceeded to do, which I found exactly as
derivative as it sounds. Apparently he is well loved by many in the crowd, but
I did not get it. In his banter he was genuine and gracious to all the folks
that helped him succeed (including his brother, girlfriend and parents). He
even brought his parents out on stage to thank them for their support over the
years. I found myself liking him as a
person, even though I didn’t enjoy his performance.
The biggest issue I had was all the openers
seemed intent on pumping up the crowd with exhortations to “get your hands
up!” and “y’all excited about Ice Cube?!?” I don’t like to be told
what to do at the best of times, and the hyping went on for the better part of
two hours before Ice Cube took the stage. Hype people up with your performance,
not with commands.
Winner: Katie Pruitt
The Main Event
Katie Pruitt
Katie Pruitt is one of my favourite
singer-songwriters in recent years. Her 2020 album was my favourite of that
year, and her new record, “Mantras” is almost as good. This meant she had a lot
of great material to work with, despite being only two records into her career.
Pruitt is unassuming on stage, but still
commands it, chiefly through her powerhouse vocals. She’s great at moving up
and down her range and her songs have melodies that are natural, free and easy.
She sang with grace and intensity and connected well with her audience.
She did a good mix between the new album
(I’d say about 65%) and the old (35%) and while she didn’t play all my
favourites (I really wanted to hear “Georgia”) she played most of them.
Late in the show she unplugged and climbed
down into the audience with her guitar to sing without amplification as we all
crowded around to hear. Everyone honoured the moment by being still and silent and
it was quite lovely indeed. I was moved, literally, abandoning the safety of
the banquette to take part in a quiet moment of connection.
Best moment:
This came early on with an inspired rendition of “Grace Has a Gun” but
she was solid throughout.
Worst moment: Pruitt had a good level of banter, but she went on a bit too long
with a schtick using a Magic Eight Ball to answer questions from the audience.
No one seemed included to participate and the whole thing was awkward and went
on too long.
Best diss song: Katie Pruitt’s music is more about forgiveness and understanding
that disses but “White Lies, White Jesus and You” hits the mark as a
song that takes aim at those who use religion to judge others. Best line:
“'Cause you talk about forgiveness like
a favor
Like it's something that you didn't have to do
Speaking of some things I put behind me
White lies, white Jesus and you”
Mic drop.
Ice Cube
Being 54 years young and having a bunch of
children’s movies under his belt have in now way softened Ice Cube. He still
hits the rhymes hard and has great flow. He also is fully in command of the
crowd. He had the 6,000 or so fans in the palm of his hand from the moment he
hit the stage.
Cube has so much good content to draw on,
and he digs deep into his catalogue, working N.W.A., his early stuff and his
late stuff all into the show equally well. His banter is solid, and felt like
quality skits from a rap record in the day, only new.
Overall, I had a good time, but I did have
some issues. First, I don’t think in the course of two hours Cube played a
single song until the end. He would typically start up a tune, drop the first
few verses, but then descend into some sort of crowd participation chant. I don’t know if this is just how he always rolls, but when I saw
Run the Jewels they were able to rap full songs, and I was hoping for the same.
Instead, I found myself getting excited
about a tune I liked, reveling in the early verses, and then losing interest
when I realized the chanting part had taken over and we were about to segue
prematurely into another half song. At one point he said “we’re gonna do 4
NWA songs in a row!” to the enthused roar of the crowd. Because of this
half-song approach those four songs were wrapped and done in about 10 minutes.
Best moment: Ice Cube was at his best during the banter moments. He has a natural
command of the stage, and he was able to rile up the crowd at will. At one
point he had opposing sides of the stadium alternating chants of “Party over
here – f___ you over there!” which was so fun it was the first and only
thing that night that I was told to do, that I did.
Worst moment: “No Vaseline” is a classic tune. Don’t tell me you are going
to sing it and then sing two minutes of it. If you are still willing to say all
that nasty stuff, then say it all the way through.
Best Diss song: “No Vaseline” is the greatest rap diss track of all time.
Ice Cube even named a bunch of other contenders before he performed it, just so
he could clarify they were not as good. He was right. “No Vaseline” is
the best. I wish I’d heard all of it, but still – it’s brilliant. It is so down
and nasty that I can’t in good conscience share any of the lyrics. Go listen
yourself if you dare.
Winner: Katie Pruitt
The Merch
Part of a good show is good merch. How did
our competitors perform on this front? Let’s see:
Katie Pruitt:
When I went to the merch table initially
all that was there were some Jack Van Cleaf shirts. I demurred, not knowing if
I’d like him or not. After his set I went back and bought a funky t-shirt
celebrating the song “Cowboy”. I also met Jack, who consented to the
friendly photo you see above. Very cool!
However, despite a couple of mournful
returns, at no point did Katie Pruitt’s merch appear. Nothing. I wanted to buy
her new album but…no. I wanted a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion but
again…no.
It is annoying enough when the merch table
runs out of mediums, but not bringing anything at all? Lame.
Ice Cube:
Ice Cube had a grade A merch table. The
lineup to get to it was 40 minutes long, but once you were there you were
rewarded. The designs were groovy, the shirts had the tour locations on the back
and the tour had a cool name (“Straight Into Canada”).
Of some frustration, my first option
was…you guessed it…sold out of mediums. Argh. I bought a large that later
turned out to be at least not too large, albeit a bit roomy. It was pricey at $60,
but opening act Jack Van Cleaf’s shirt was $45 and only one-sided so…fine.
Winner: Ice Cube
Summary:
Ice Cube takes the categories of both Crowd
and Merch, but Pruitt responds with wins of her own in Venue, Opener and the all-important
Main Event.
Overall Winner: Katie Pruitt
