Lineup: Flatbush Zombies/Kirk Knight/Nyck Caution
Venue: House of Blues, Boston, MA
Date: May 19th, 2018
Nyck Caution: Was stuck in line outside of the wonderful House of Blues for over an hour and missed his set.
Kirk Knight: By the time I finally made into the building, Kirk Knight had already started his set. Despite being regularly burdened with overly loud backing tracks, the Pro Era rapper/producer was still pretty enjoyable. The 23-year old has some decent bars and a natural, charismatic stage presence that won the crowd over almost immediately. While he's not likely to unseat his pal Joey Bada$$ as the leader of New York's most prolific hip-hop collective anytime soon, Knight appears to have enough ability to enjoy a nice solo career.
Flatbush Zombies: After seeing them put on a stellar show in front of a suspect crowd at Boston Calling last Memorial Day weekend, I expressed my desire to see Flatbush Zombies play a headlining show ASAP. If they were an incendiary force in front of a relatively indifferent early afternoon festival audience, a performance in front of a room full of their fans must be completely insane. That theory proved to be correct as Brooklyn's finest undead hip-hop trio absolutely burned up the stage in front of a sold out crowd at Boston's most spectacular music hall on Saturday night.
Out of all the hip-hop acts I've seen perform, Flatbush is easily the most intense. They possess the true punk aesthetic that so many new rappers have unsuccessfully tried to adapt and this rare quality helps make their shows feel like a god damn riot. All three members were on a warpath as soon as they walked on stage-jumping/running around during almost every song, diving into the crowd and encouraging mayhem at every corner. The portion of the crowd that overindulged in controlled substances and were sidelined for the back half of their set after going WAY too hard out of the gate probably didn't appreciate it, but I felt that the constant activity on-and-off stage led to the creation of a fun, uniquely raucous atmosphere that you don't get to experience often at hip-hop shows.
Amidst all of the excitement their frantic stage show and subsequent explosive audience response generates, it's easy to gloss over just how great these guys are at their craft. Watching Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and Erick "Arc" Elliott rip through roughly 95 minutes of material is like attending an intensive class on the art of proficient rapping. With their abundant swagger, near-perfect delivery and full-on embrace of the group mentality, they make the difficult look completely routine. They might not always hit home runs in the studio (as evidenced by the inconsistency present on all of their releases save for 2014's BetterOffDEAD), but their immense technical gifts will always help make their live performances amazing.
This performance was enough for me to officially place Flatbush Zombies in my personal hall of fame for live hip-hop acts. Their elite showmanship combined with the visceral boost their raw, often abrasive style of music receives when it's played in front of a room full of hyped up people makes their shows an absolute can't miss experience. Long live the Zombie Gang.
Scores:
Kirk Knight: B-
Flatbush Zombies: A
Setlist:
Flatbush Zombies:
HELL-O
Chunky
Bounce
Headstone
M. Bison
Vacation
Big Shrimp
U &I
This is It
New Phone, Who Dis?
Ascension
Facts
Leather Symphony
Lava
Proxies
Trapped
222
Trade-Off
Best American
AmeriKKKan Pie
S.C.O.S.A.
Bath Salt (A$AP Mob cover)
The Glory
Encore:
Palm Trees
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