Now on the East Side.... Got into J.F.K. more than a little overwhelmed
(now that's what I call a *big* air-port!!!) and soon made my way in to the
city. However I didn't spend to much time here as following my trip to San
Jose the night before (see my last update,) I didn't manage to get a wink
of sleep. i.e by the time i reached N.Y.C. I had been up about 32 hours.
*ugh*... Basically all I did here was check out the Empire State building,
cruising up to the main-lookout (82nd floor?), but not bothering to go
right to the top as there was a humungo que. Got some cool snaps from up
there! :-)
Following that I struck out of the city briefly cruising past other major
places e.g. Times Square. I really wanted to go past the Ed Sullivan
theatre but hey, it was a bit out of the way! C'est la vie! And that's
about it for N.Y.C. I also unintentially visited many of the other N.Y.C.
suburbs upon getting lost when trying to leave!
>From there I struck out north, with the sole purpose of seeing a Belizbeha
show. As it happened I did get the chance to see them in their home-town
of Burlington, Vermont where they were playing as part of the July 4th
celebrations. (Note though that Burlington was having all it's
celebrations on the 3rd as the 5th was a working day [if that makes sense
to any of you...]) First of all I peeped the fire-works which were quite
nifty and then went along to the show which was at a club called "Toast".
Three bands were playing. "The Source", "DaVinci" and the head-liner act
"Belizbeha".
The Source had already been on and i was quite pissed that I had missed
them (they're a N.Y.C. hip-hop crew, who are supposed to be pretty good!)
DaVinci had also been on for some time, so i got to see about the last
half-hour of their show, which was real cool! A very nice trumpet solo by
the horn-player, who I soon discovered was actually Belizbeha's horn-player
"on loan" to DaVinci for the night. Soon enough DaVinci wrapped up their
set and the crowd packed in in anticpation of Belizbeha. During the
set-break half the ppl took off to the bar which gave me my chance to make
my way to the front and i ended up being a mere three rows back from the
stage. One cool thing about the venue was that the stage was real low and
right in with the crowd which set up a really coll sort of interactive vibe
between the crowd and the group (although I could imagine that being that
close to the crowd mightn't always be practical!)
Anyway Belizbeha made their way onto the stage soon enough and let me tell
you that between them all, the stage was *packed*!!! Two rappers; Fattie
Boom-balattie and G-Whizz, two singers; Shauna (the acid-jazz list's own
Shauna, who can correct all the mistakes I make in spelling everyone's
names,) and Kadi, a drummer, guitarist, key-boardist, sax-player,
trumpet-player, bassist, their manager and a local guest-rapper were all up
there! That's 12 people!!!
The show got underway and the crowd got-down as best they could (kinda
difficult when it's so packed that you can hardly move!) I haven't heard
much of Belizbeha's album so I couldn't really recognise any of the tracks,
but all the music was phat!!! They kicked a large spectrum of styles all
backed by an under-lying acid-jazz vibe. They would have represented
hip-hop, funk, R&B, straight-up jazz (more groovy solos from the
horn-player,) and even pop (I'll get to that...) Like i said the audience
was jumping and you could see that the band was reflecting their vibe.
When I talked to them later they said that how the crowd reacts effects
their performance. A hyped crowd = a hyped show! It was defiently a
hyped crowd. *Everyone* was dancing, many were singing along word for word
and the performance was tight.
One cool thing was being able to see the different personalities within the
band. For example, Fattie is obviously the joker constantly fooling around
and strongly interacting with the crowd. When the band decided to play
their latest cover (of an old Micheal Jackson track [hence the earlier
"pop" reference,] of which I've forgotten the name,) Fattie jumps down in
the crowd and stays there for the whole song as he hadn't yet had the
chance to practice it with the band! :-) Another amusing incident was
during the set-break when their bassist (Shaun,) went missing! The whole
bands waiting to start and he's just disappeared! He eventually shows up
the whole crowd having a laugh at his expense (it was later pointed out
that he's reknowned for this sort of thing and those of you that have seen
the album cover weill note that he's the guy running behind the car [i.e.
he turned up late and missed it! :-)])
Anyway, as I've said it was all tight and the music was phat!!! All I can
say is that I will not be the least bit suprised *when* these kids blow up
as there is definete talent there! They kept the crowd bouncing for the
whole show and when they left (after an encore,) the crowd was still hungry
for more! Those of you who have the chance should pick up this album and
in the very least check it out as I'm certain you won't be dissapointed!
Anyway, that's about it for this update. No more live music for me....
Well, until Phoenix anyway! :-) The travels continue and I'm out!
Dino!