Billboard Summer Blowout @ Pier 36, August 11, 2011

The guys from Billboard (yea, THAT Billboard) threw their Summer Blowout event/concert last night in the NYC’s worst kept “secret location,” Pier 36 downtown. This of course was the location for last year’s epic Heineken concert with Nas and Cee-Lo Green, so you knew that last night’s show was going to be just as big. First let’s do a little event coverage:

Pier 36 is a huge pier, the size of an airplane hanger or so, so you can fit all kinds of stuff on the space. There were tons of sponsors with all their stuff set up, like 7-11 (giving away slurpees!) and Pop Chips (of course), even HP was there, raffling off their overpriced Beats by Dr Dre headphones and even laptops. It was a nice little set up. The only problem I had with the set up was the bar situation. There were clearly a LOT of people at this show, but they only had two bars, with what seemed like 2 bartenders each, who weren’t the most competent bartenders. On top of that, they only gave people one drink ticket, unless they were VIPs or press with wristbands. Let’s just say it was kind of difficult to get a drink from the bar, which was fully stocked for what it’s worth.

I went to the bar to try and get my first drink, and almost missed the entire opening act, who happen to be Gentlemen Hall.  They are the Billboard Music Awards Battle of the Bands winners, and they won a chance to perform at the award show. Pretty cool huh? They clearly are loving it because they also were granted a chance to open last night’s show. So while I stood behind a mob of people trying to squirm up to the bar to get something to drink, the Boston based band took the stage and went through their set. Their sound is great, they have a sort of new age 80s rock feel to them, but don’t think 80s ballad, far more electronic than that, even complete with an autotune microphone, awarded to their lead singer. Luckily I got a drink in time to hear them do a few songs up close, and they’re excellent performers, with tons of stage presence and energy. They even have a flute player in the band, Seth, who I had the pleasure of having a quick chat with when the event was over. He was very nice and absolutely gracious of everyone showing up to the show; I felt like his vibe was kind of what the entire bands’ would be, really happy about their current situation! They’re in a good position and you can tell that these guys are about on the brink of stardom for sure, especially judging from their performance prowess.  Take a listen to their stuff at www.gentlemenhall.com.

Next on the list was Swizz Beatz, who I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing before, and not more than a month ago as well. His set yesterday was just as energy filled, as he went through his usual fare of awesome beats that he’s produced. This time was a bit different though, calling out England’s own Estelle to come out and bless the stage with a couple of her tracks, including “DJ Play The Beat.” It was her trying to bring some positive vibes (as she said) to old London town, which as you probably know could use some positive vibes right about now.  After she exited the stage he went back into his catalog of hits, leading up to his now big finish, his new dance track called “Dance Like a White Girl.” It’s a pretty hype song (kind of like LMFAO style stuff) with a fun breakdown, causing the crowd to go into a frenzy and causing Swizzy to jump off the stage! Twice! It was awesome! The first stage dive led him to tell his DJ to start the song over, while he just went crazy in the crowd with everyone! Swizz Beatz is an awesome performer, who I’ve been blessed to see twice in a month for free, but if you hear he’s performing somewhere, it would probably be in your best interest to check it out.

Having said that though, we move onto the closers of the show, the headliners, LMFAO. Now I knew that I was on for a very insane performance, and very energy filled, and most likely fun. I knew this, despite the fact that I’ve never seen LMFAO perform before.  My guess was wrong…their performance is WAY MORE CRAZY that anything I could have imagined! They opened the show with their new single “Sorry for Party Rockin,” apologizing for everything that happens during or after their exploits at a party. From there they (and the crowd) were off to the races. Before they even came on stage their Party Rock Crew of dancers came out and started throwing glow necklaces out in the crowd. That would not be the last thing that the crowd would get from the guys on stage.

The energy level of Pier 36 was off the charts from the beginning of their performance, which comes complete with Quest Crew (now famous from their stint on America’s Best Dance Crew) breaking and drinking alcohol out of a beer bong, which is then thrown into the crowd! They threw beach balls, and even a GIANT inflated zebra, that people just bumped around during the show.  All of the hits were on display last night, with a whole bunch of stuff off their new album, “Sorry for Party Rocking.” “Rock the Beat II” got some play, as well as “Sexy and I Know it,” and “Put That Ass To Work.” All the while the guys found time to spray the crowd with Coronas, which was a bit different from the water Swizz Beatz through on the crowd earlier.

Their hit song (and the #1 song on the Billboard charts for 5 weeks in a row) “Party Rock Anthem,” was surprisingly not their last song, but it was quite possibly their best performed song (if I had to choose one). It started with a break circle from the Quest Crew boys, then they came out and rocked the house. They even made a dance circle and had people ‘shufflin’ in the middle, including the ShuffleBot from the music video (if you’ve never seen this music video, please Youtube it, it is the best music video that has been made in years).  They did another song of their new album called “Champagne Showers,” which of course all culminated in the entire stage of people (which was about 13 or so) grabbing a bottle of champagne and spraying the crowd with it! This is the first time I’ve had champagne sprayed on me by an artist (or at least during a performance) and you know what, pretty cool! At this point you’re thinking, how could this show get anymore ridiculous? Well they hadn’t performed “Shots” yet, which of course was the song they finished with. Everyone on the stage was drinking at this point, mixing vodka and beer in a beer bong and just pounding it. Utter pandemonium really, and everyone was loving it, me included. My friend that I went with said it was probably the best performance he’s ever seen; honestly, it was pretty damn good really!

LMFAO are not for the boring; they probably wouldn’t do well in a place with seats, but I don’t like concerts with seats anyway, so I guess we’re alike in that regard. They are amazing performers, just bring your drinking pants, and possibly a shirt you don’t mind getting covered in alcohol. Everyone was so wired by the end of it that DJ Homicide (the DJ for the night) came on after the show and played some tracks and everyone was just dancing like crazy. It was the most fun everyone was having during his DJ set all night. To the point that security was having a hard time throwing people out at the end, everyone wanted to party more, and I can't blame them really. This was a great free show from the guys at Billboard, and I think other companies should learn that sometimes, it is all about the fans. #SorryForPartyRocking.

Thursday Night Live w/ Julia Haltigan @ John Varvatos, August 4, 2011

John Varvatos does it again! Thursday Night Live was last night and honestly, if you haven’t been to John Varvatos Bowery for their monthly Thursday events you really need to fix that…

Last night had another great act (that I’ve never heard of prior to the performance) perform, by the name of Julia Haltigan, backed by her band The Hooligans. It was for her, her EP release party, having released “My Green Heart” to the world of music lovers this week. Now as I mentioned before, this was the first time I’d ever heard of Julia Haltigan, so it was clearly the first time I’d ever heard her sing. The great thing about John Varvatos’ monthly parties is that for the most part, a lot of the acts aren’t very well known, so it lets these performers get a chance to shine in the #1 market in the world. The other great thing about Thursday Night Live, is the fact that every act they have billed is good, and happen to be legit musicians. Ms. Haltigan was no different.

She has a very powerful voice, as you learned from the first few notes she sang when the show was underway. She opened with her song “I Smell A Rat,” and right off the bat you knew that you were in for a world of blues. She has a sound kind of like Grace Potter, that sultry Stevie Nix-like folk blues voice, and she also plays the guitar. They did a splendid 10 song set, and even found time to throw in a few tracks from their new EP, including one of my favorites, the title track “My Green Heart.” My favorite song for the night is also on their new EP, by the name of “The Flame,” a slower ballad about a chance encounter with a particular guy.

Her songs don’t tug at the heart strings as much as they hit on your eardrums. The sounds coming out of the speakers last night were captivating, and her voice rode the music so wonderfully you couldn’t help but listen. I say check out their new EP “My Green Heart,” and for more information on Julia Haltigan take a gander at her website: http://www.juliahaltigan.com.

Mad Decent Block Party @ South Street Seaport, July 30, 2011

So, this ridiculous rager started at Noon on Saturday, but me and my friend didn’t arrive until about 3:30pm or so. Having said that, I’m not really sure who we missed (or who we actually saw for that matter) and I will explain why. It was a completely outdoor event with no check-in at all. They were selling beer there but really, what would be the point of buying a beer when you could just go to the closest liquor store and get stuff and bring it back. Not to say that I did this (or didn’t), but I’m just saying, it was a possibility! On to the show…

Because of how awesome of a place it was, and how crazy it got, I will attempt to talk about the people I know who performed. Bosco Delrey was the first act I remember seeing in it’s entirety, because I remember mentioning how I wasn’t a very big fan of his sound. It was a very strange attempt at rock fusion, the fusion being techno and dance music, and I don’t really think it was very good. The sound for me wasn’t very good (it wasn’t a speaker problem, because everyone else sounded great) but it was so hot and everyone was so far from sober that they were pretty happy to hear just about anything even in the realm of music coming out of the speakers.

The Hood Internet were the next DJ set up I believe. They’re the Chicago based production duo who are probably best known for their mashups of hip-hop and rap. They play really popular rap songs over completely different beats and instrumentals, that are also usually really popular, and fun to dance to. It’s all over the place, from house to techno to reggae to rock, but their performances consist of them mixing their remixes. Their set was quite fun, I remember an increase in the dancing of the patrons in attendance, myself included.

Maluca is the next act I definitely remember hitting the stage, mostly because I remember a buddy of mine asking me whether that was her standing in front of the stores at the Seaport, with a huge entourage. I’ve never seen or heard of her before, but the woman in question was wearing what looked like a bikini with a see-through plastic skirt. I thought, if that’s not her, she definitely looks like she should be performing at this event! She did eventually take the stage, and the Bronx native went straight into her style of song, which she describes sometimes as “tropical punk.” It sounded at times like Reggaeton, also sometimes like electro Cumbia, but no matter what she performed the crowd went into a frenzy. I clearly have been missing out, because she walked with her fans, and also with her crew. There were probably 12 guys on stage with her, none of which had a microphone. She had a rapper sized entourage to say the least. It didn’t matter though, she must have performed 5 energy filled songs before she had to beg the crowd to leave. She didn’t, and did one more song for the screaming fans before making her exit.

At this point it was like a million degrees outside, but it didn’t really matter by then; you were having so much fun that it was really irrelevant at this point how sweaty you were. I’m glad too, because the next act on stage after Maluca were the boys I came to see, Zeds Dead. The Dub-Step duo hailing from Canada hit the stage running and blessed the crowd with a barrage of their Dub-Step remixes, a mixture of old stuff and brand new stuff, all good. I was kind of annoyed because my favorite of their songs, “Knights in White Satin,” went unplayed. It was OK though because when their set was done, the DJ who would play in between the sets played it, literally as soon as they got off the stage. So I still go to hear my favorite track. If you’re into Dub-Step these guys are amongst the most creative with their stuff, check them out for sure.

It gets a little fuzzy for me at this point, because I was running around trying to find people and meet up with other people, with that said, I believe Gang Gang Dance were next, playing the background music for my “where are my friends” escapades. Claude VonStroke was the closer of the show, rocking his usual techno and house jams way past sundown. The funny thing is, this was probably the part I remember the most people having the most fun. Literally everyone on the Seaport was dancing, and at that point, there were quite a lot of folks at the Seaport. Unfortunately though, time flies when you’re having fun, and the show was supposed to go until 9pm. By 9pm, the music faded right out! Everyone looked towards the stage and Claude just shrugged his shoulders, looking around at his sound people. They all looked just as confused as he was! I mean, everyone on the stage was dancing too, including Claude, and then the music stopped. He grabbed the music and said, I guess we’re done here, of course, to a bunch of boos. The people who were booing though could not have been there all day! I wasn’t even there the entire time and I was tired as hell, danced myself right out of my wits on Saturday. The Mad Decent Block Party was definitely closer to Mad CRAZY, and if you missed it it’s hard to explain how insane it was. Hard to imagine you had more fun at an event that day…

The Giant Step Double Header @ Le Bain, July 25, 2011

So I went to Le Bain last night, technically it was twice in one day. Well, not really, it was only once, but it was for two separate events thrown by the same music loving company by the name of Giant Step. It was really back to back events that were held at the exact same space, which is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone doing that, but it was a lot of fun anyway. I suppose it’s hard NOT to have fun in Le Bain, so Giant Step probably thought, let’s just have everything here, all in one day.

Event number one for the night was a mini Melanie Fiona showcase. Now I’d been to a showcase at Le Bain (also thrown by Giant Step) before, but I didn’t actually see the performance because I was outside on the balcony area, but I could hear it. It wasn’t until last night that I actually saw how they set up the inside of Le Bain for performances. They make them pretty much perform on the couches surrounding the indoor pool. Doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense but, whatever works I guess. I understand the allure of Le Bain (it’s the best place in NYC to party, bar none) but it’s not the best place to have a live performance. I would imagine it would have been cheaper for the guys from Giant Step to find a different venue with a better stage setup., but I’m never going to complain about drinking for free at Le Bain.

If you don’t know Melanie Fiona she’s an R&B artist with a fine live voice, as I found out last night. She also has a lot of dedicated fans, who stood outside in the rain waiting to get in for at least an hour (it took me an hour and a half to get in!). The entire event was well worth it though, because she’s a consummate professional, and I almost missed the entire performance because I was yet again outside when it was happening. It gets really packed inside for these Giant Step events so I decided to retreat to the outdoors for some chill and drink time, only to find out that she was performing inside. I ran back inside to catch the tail end of her performance, which is why I’m not mentioning the songs she did, I didn’t hear them! I did hear her do one song, and it was good enough for me to make the statement that she sounds great live.

After she was all finished up, they went straight into the second event, a party DJed by the one and only DJ Spinna, who is a phenomenal house DJ. House music for me is the most fun music one can dance to, and it’s great because you don’t have to be really awesome at house dancing to dance to it. The beats are always really catchy and a good house DJ usually mixes in all kinds of music with it to keep the vibe going (Breakbeats, disco, old school hip-hop, etc.). DJ Spinna is a great house DJ, and everyone was dancing, literally EVERYONE. And it was a very mixed up crowd as well, from young people to people 20 years my senior, just jamming out. I had to get to work today so I had to leave early, but I really didn’t want to, but such is Le Bain, upon entering you never actually want to leave that place. EVER. Check out Giant Step for more awesome events.

Tego Calderon @ The Spot, July 15, 2011

Well well readers. What did you this weekend?! That's a little inside joke, the answer in nothing. I did a whole lot of that this past weekend. Starting with Friday night, when I hit up "The Spot" for another Heineken event: a performance by reggaeton superstar Tego Calderon.

Heineken has been doing what they could to make up for that Kanye West event. Case in point: this past week I drank free Heineken on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! It sounds a bit ridiculous, but it's quite true: Wednesday: Heineken event @ GunBar; Thursday: Thursday Night Live @ John Varvatos; Friday: Tego Calderon; Saturday: Philipino event @ the Jungle Design Space. Good stuff if you ask me.

So when I got to Friday's Heineken event, which was at an art space called Openhouse Gallery, on Mulberry. It's a pretty nice space with decent space to accommodate a good amount of people. But not THAT good, as I found out later in the night, more on that later. Heineken has a whole bunch of Latin music related shows this summer, and if you look at the link on the flyer above you'll find a way for you to RSVP for their upcoming shows (can't say I never gave you anything).

So I get in and the place is set up nicely, as one would expect. Those guys from Heineken are quite good at making decor look very nice for their events. They give you a wristband when you're coming in, as you would expect, except for some reason this particular wristband had two little buttons on it. These removable buttons represented all the free drinks you get. Two beers?! All night?! It's crazy I know but they're throwing so many of these events it's a wonder they're giving away any free beer at all.

The DJ who's name currently escapes me was playing all kinds of house, techno, and Latin hits, getting people in the mood for partying. I had my bookbag with me, coming from work, and they didn't check it, which made me think I really should have snuck in some booze. Don't worry, I figured out something. =) The vibes were right and everyone is having a good time. The event started at 8pm and was scheduled to go until midnight, and the rumor was that Tego would take the stage at 11pm. Not too bad I thought. At some point however, a few people who worked for Heineken went on to the stage to talk to the DJ. It was about 10:30PM when this happened. He turned the music down to make an announcement, in English: asking for 35 volunteers to leave the venue, because the place was over capacity! Unbelievable right?! This is even more ridiculous when you consider this: the day before the show, Heineken sent out an email to everyone who was on their mailing list, saying there were 50 more spots available for the Tego show. I went onto their website and immediately signed up a friend of mine who didn't make it on the list before (she didn't end up going anyways) and thought, yea now she can go. So, you guys didn't know the capacity of the venue? Unreal...it's always one step forward then two steps back with the former kings of the Party. On to the show...

Let me be the first to say that I am conversational in Spanish. Having said that, I can only pick up a few words when it's being spoken at regular speed, a speed that sounds very fast to non-Spanish speakers. So one can assume, that when Tego took the stage and performed all of his hits, that I didn't really understand what he was saying for the most part! I will also be the first to admit, that I'm not the biggest fan of reggaeton at all. With both of those things considered though, I had a great time at this event. Tego is a great performer who, if you like partying, will move you whether you know what he's saying or not. It's hard not to like a guy who took time out of his busy schedule of rocking on stage, to go into the crowd and party with some of the (drunk) patrons on hand. I'm not very familiar with his songs, so I'm willing to say that he did "all of his hits" judging from the crowd roars every time he went into a different track. Besides a couple notable tunes he has with Don Omar, he pretty much did everything you'd like if you were a big fan of talented Puerto Rican star. I would advise following the link on the flyer above if you'd like to partake in any of the upcoming shows, that will all be at the same spot in downtown Manhattan. Good work Heineken.

Sounds Like Paper @ House of Vans, July 6, 2011

So the guys from Paper Magazine through their issue release party at the new awesome hangout spot in Brooklyn, the House of Vans. This particular party, which has come to be known as “Sounds like Paper,” was supposed to be a showcase of the 3 people that have graced their newest cover: Swizz Beats, Joe Jonas, and Santigold. Unfortunately, our friend Santigold didn’t show up. She wasn’t originally billed for the show but then her name was added at the last minute. Apparently it was even too last minute for her, as she was a no show. Besides that though, the show was excellent.

It was supposed to be “door at 7pm,” which normally means you get there early and just wait for no reason and they don’t let people in until like 20 minutes later. Apparently that’s something that Paper Magazine does often, to make sure their people get in first. A lot of the people standing on line had never been to the House of Vans before, so they were asking about how big the place was. I, having been there a couple weeks ago, told them that they had nothing to fear, the place could easily hold over 1000 people.

When we finally got in everyone ran to the bar, because the beers were free, courtesy of Corona. They also had the  Ben & Jerry Truck inside giving away free icecream, but there was nothing in the line of free food, like the flyer said. On to the show…

Joe Jonas came on first, to some very loud screams from the young female patrons that were up at the VERY front. I’m not very familiar with his stuff (no surprise there), but despite how I feel about the Jonas Brothers they are quite talented. He’s gone solo, but his stuff still sounds teenie bopper poppy, so I guess if you’re into the Jonas sound then you would probably enjoy his short 4 song performance. But I’m guessing that if you’re a Jonas Bros. fan that you’re probably not reading my blog!

After a quick intermission of music from the DJ they introduced Swizz Beats and his band. Now I wanted to go to the show specifically for Swizzy, not because I’m a huge fan of his (because I guess I am) but because I wanted to know what a  performance of his would be like. Swizz Beats as many of you may know is a rap producer, who started off making beats for the DMX and the Ruff Ryders. He’s not a rapper, but he does do the chorus on many of the songs that he produces, so I was wondering whether he would just have a performance of choruses. He did…

But don’t let that statement fool you, his performance was full of energy, and actually lots of fun. Even I had forgotten how many songs he’s made the beats to, but he managed to touch on just about everything. He went from Ruff Ryders tracks like the “Ruff Ryder Anthem” and “Party Up” (both DMX tracks) to some Jay-Z stuff like “Jigga My N*gga” and “Money, Cash, Hoes.”

It was like listening to your favorite rap DJ just play a bunch of hot and fun songs while Swizz just did the chorus, then they would move on to a different track. He does have a couple tracks of his own that he did, like “Money In The Bank” and “Everyday,” which features rapper Eve. But for the most part it was a Swizz Beats greatest hits (or hooks really!) performance. They played “Swing Your Rag” by TI, “Who’s Real” by Jadakiss, “Fancy” by Drake, and “My Drink and my Two Step” by his artist Cassidy. It was surely a very fun performance if you enjoy a really fun performance DJ like I do. Weirdly enough, “So Apalled” wasn’t on the menu last night, but it didn’t really matter, everyone was already hot and sweaty by the time he was ready to exit the stage. And then, randomly, Carmelo Anthony showed up! He didn’t rap, he just came on stage, waived at everyone, then left. It was random, but kind of cool.

The event was abruptly over after that, with the people at House of Vans turning the lights on shortly after he exited the stage. It was a good show, even with the absence of Santigold, even with me posting on my Facebook  that I was at a private Swizz Beats and Santigold show, which of course was only half right! It was a great time though, but I’m starting to suspect that good times are in store for the summer at the House of Vans.

Album Review: Ayo the Nigerian Nightmare - Delusions of Grandeur

My first album review! I'm pretty excited. Here goes: a good friend of mine asked me to review this album because the person in question, Ayo, is his artist. That being said, I will give a fair and just review, I owe it to my readers don't I?

Ayo is a Nigerian born and NY based rapper and spoken word poet. That's right folks, he does poetry as well. You shouldn't forget this because if you don't like poetry or spoken word performers, you probably will not like a lot of this album. This is because there are a few tracks on the album that are Ayo doing his poetry thing, and they are, if you're into that, some of the really stellar parts of the album. For instance, the track "Folasade" was one of my favorites; a very melodic and hypnotizing track was the backdrop for Ayo's ode to his first love by the name of Folasade. His wordplay really comes out in his spoken word and definitely in this track.

The album starts off with a very funny audio from a little movie called "Coming to America." Fitting I thought, because everyone loves that movie, and it's a great part of the film. From there we get right into the music with back to back tracks featuring Omni Blaize, "Dreams" and "She's Leaving," respectively. Both good tracks, but "Dreams" is my favorite of the two; what can I say, I like the beat more. On "Tales of the Forgotten" he starts off the story telling by giving a shout out to rapper Immortal Technique, who I went to High School with of course. Felipe whatup?!

The next track is "To The End Of Time," which actually features my friend who asked me to review the album in the first place, Areckless Mind (clearly not his real name). Now although this beat is super sick, I wasn't a fan of the deliveries of both rappers, and I definitely didn't like the chorus on the song. The lyrics are there but I felt like both rappers were going faster than the beat, if that makes sense? It was right around here that I thought that maybe really slow beats weren't really Ayo's thing. Well time would tell...

Up next was another great spoken word track, "Reflections on Race from an Outsider's Perspective." Not much secrets here, I'm sure you can guess what that one is about! The next track as a good one, "Bright Lights" featuring L05 on the hook. Again I felt like maybe the beat was too slow for him, and he was kind of ahead of it again. It's a good song but if he rode the beat better it would have been splendid. The next song is "Groove" and truthfully this is my least favorite song on the album. It seems like he attempted making a kind of club banger song here but falls short, and I found it twice as annoying because the album has such a poetic feel to it that I felt like maybe he was reaching here with this song.

I won't talk about everything on the album, but asside from the tracks I mentioned, other standouts for me are "Bad Men" and "It's the Nigerian Nightmare" featuring Louise Browne. Both have great beats, with the latter having the better one, but he really shows off his flow and lyrical wordplay on both tracks. I wanted to see more stuff like this on the album because they're really good songs. "Excess Baggage" represents the best spoken word track on the whole album, with the chorus sung by Shelly Bhushan. His words (he reminds us that baggage makes planes and relationships sink) in conjunction with the vocals of Ms. Bhushan make an excellent poetic track. I think that this track would be great to people who don't even really like spoken word, because this is just flat out great. He finishes with a song called ""Thin line between love and hate," which features a quite famous track (I won't say which one!) and he cruises it to near perfection. All in all it's a good album, and I'm willing to give it 3.5 out of 5 because it has some great stuff, but other stuff just could have been better. But really you shouldn't take my word for it, the album is available for FREE at Ayo's website: ayoinmotion.com/. I say check it out and listen for yourself.