What up all of you people out there on the Interwebz!
This is Murd3rUrFace here to give you my rundown of the events leading up to Tech N9ne’s Saturday night performance at the Myth Nightclub in Maplewood, Minnesota. Saturday afternoon I embarked on my 80 mile road trip up to the twin cities(I live in Rochester). I recently acquired a new camera body, which was a considerable upgrade I might add! I was riding shotgun on the way to the performance, trying to familiarize myself with my new gear.
If you’re wondering, my beautiful wife Alicia was driving. I’m not usually nervous before shows, but for whatever reason I was this time. Was it the new gear? Being at the show alone? Who knows? I don’t know what it was but something felt off. At any rate, we arrived and checked into the hotel, and grabbed some pizza (Reds Savoy!). Now ,if you’re ever in Minnesota, and have the chance to try it, I highly recommend it. Afterwards, I grabbed a couple Road sodas (beers) for the drive to the venue. Remember I was riding shotgun. I don’t condone drinking and driving people!
Anyway, I got dropped off about 20 minutes before the doors opened and holy hell! There was a ton of people waiting in line. The Myth holds approximately 3200 people, but I’m almost positive they over sold the venue. I shot a few faces in the crowd and made my way to the front to check on my media pass. (Perks of the job! “Fuck that line” lol.) I walked up front and asked security where I should go. They directed me inside the doors where I picked up my pass. I must say it was about as smooth as it gets. No issues, no problems at all! Thank you Lisa! After I got that settled, I headed back outside and shot some more “I’m stuck in this line” pics.
About that time I ran into Ubiquitous from Ces Cru chopped it up with him for a bit about how long this line of people was. He was just as shocked as I was to see that line. Afterwards, we had a few minutes to talk about how tour was going. We parted ways and I set out to get a few more pics before the doors officially opened at 6:00 p.m. Of course, I got busy taking pics and looked down and here it is ten after six and they still haven’t opened the damn doors for all the people waiting (which isn’t anything new, but still!) Luckily, that didn’t really affect me, so I just walked back up to the front and they let me in. Once I got inside, I went in and peeped out the stage set up and the area they had set up for the photo pit so I could see what I was working with. It all seemed straight forward and easily accessible. With that outta the way, it was time to get everything settled and dial in the camera gear for dark indoor club shooting. (For the people who understand camera speak “ISO 1600 to start, Shutter speed 60 at the moment, F stop 1.8;” Seems easy, right? Right!)
Anyway, by that time people are pouring in through the 3 sets of doors, it didn’t take long before the place was packed! The show started pretty promptly at 7:00 p.m. with Stevie Stone kicking off the night. I don’t know much about him, or his music. But I did see him few months back at a Twiztid show, and he’s impressed me both times! His show is very high energy with a sick flow and a good hype man on stage helping him put it all together. He did maybe a twenty five/thirty minute set, not positive, but it seemed short! (Actually, everyone’s set seemed short! Times flies when you are having fun!) Next up was Ces Cru! These two dudes kill it, every time! I know most Juggalos know who they are, but there were a ton of people at this show who had no idea who anyone was other than Tech! Unbelievable right? I’m guessing Ces did about forty minutes of mash ups some choruses and half songs, and some full songs, along with a couple of the their popular bangers. There was some good crowd interaction and they thanked the crowd and were out that bitch.
Next up? ¡Mayday! They came out live as fuck. They looked genuinely excited to be there and performed as such. They were all over the stage, back and forth dozens of times, running, jumping and rapping the hell outta their set. They murdered it! If you’ve never seen or heard of ¡Mayday!, be sure to check them out. Now at this point, I heard a few rumors that Rittz had some voice issues and might not even perform. That would have been stale as fuck. Well, those did just prove to be rumors. Because Rittz came out on fire! Rittz also performed some tight mash up style songs. He did the first couple verses of “Switch Lanes,” and then a few full songs, some old and new and some improv style remixes. Classics mixed in with the new shit! It was really just a well-balanced set list by Rittz. My only complaint, again, was it was just way too short of a set.
At this time I headed to the back of the club to hit up the bar for a modestly priced $8 can of beer. (Ouch!) Pounded that down. (I was quite parched!) After that I walked around a bit, and got a few more crowd shots. I made my way back to the front for what I assumed would have been Krizz Kaliko. To everyone’s surprise though, it was Tech standing on top of the stage at the Strange Music podium. The crowd of 3000+ went absolutely bananas!
If you’ve ever been to a Tech show, you know Kali is his hype man and those two are magic on stage. Tech did a well rounded mix of old and new songs with Krizz throwing some of his flavor in the mix. They tore up the stage for what seemed like forever! Then the music got awfully soft and familiar boom right there in Minnesota, Kaliko did an amazing cover of “Purple Rain.” (RIP Prince!) As was to be expected, the crowd sang along, held lighters in the sky and applauded like crazy when they finished. It was pure magic!
Hats off to Tech! He’s come a long ways since the last time I’ve seen him perform in Minnesota (which was back when he was the opening act for Insane Clown Posse on their Wicked Wonka Tour, talk about a throwback!) The whole night was amazing, with a great crowd, great performances and not to toot my own horn but great pictures as well!
If the Independent Powerhouse Tour comes to your city, don’t sleep on it! It’s a great show! Well worth the price of admission. In closing I’d like to thank Lisa, the entire staff at Juggalo News, and my wife Alicia. Well, that’s it for my long ass review. Hope you liked it. (If anyone is still reading this!)
Much love,
Sincerely,
That murd3r guy
