THURSDAY - B L A C K I E (all caps, with spaces) is Hulk to Gil Scott-Heron's Bruce Banner. Scott-Heron always rejected the title of godfather of rap, preferring to self-identify as a 'bluesologist'. B L A C K I E (Michael LaCour) might not share that title but he might be the rightful heir to Scott-Heron with his socially-aware, super affirmative shout-rap. The self-flagillating (beating his chest with the mic for hollow-sounding but emphatic punctuation) Houston-native is what happens when spoken word meets interpretive, confrontational dance, gets a healthy dose of social commentary and is set to noise rock. It's really fucking awesome. It's also one of those rare NXNE experiences that challenges, discomforts slightly, but reminds the audience of what is so special about live music.
He plays again tonight at the The Velvet Underground at 9, go see him. Go see him because it's nice, as Torontonians, to see a musician wearing nothing but jean cutoffs (other than that red-head travelling troubadour who frequents Trinity Bellwoods wearing black denim and playing Depeche Mode covers).
LISTEN to B L A C K I E on MySpace here.
Text by Alex Snider. Photos by Carmen Cheung.
You'll find all of our NXNE coverage here.
Alex Snider loves hip hop and she loves noise rock and she loves intense performances, B L A C K I E satisfied all those needs. She blogs here and tweets here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment