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Live Review: Gift of Gab w/ Run with the Heard – May 4th 2011, Bar None, Vancouver B.C.

May 7th, 2011 Filed under: Reviews - Live by Editor in Chief

CLICK TO ENLARGE | Photos – Jamie Sands)
(Top: Gift of Gab, Bottom: Run with the Heard)

Live Review: Gift of Gab with Run with the Heard
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Bar None, Vancouver, B.C.

Vancouver is a very interesting city due to the fact that each of its very specific neighbourhoods has a particular flare that is present throughout the entire schematic. Whether its hipsters in Mount Pleasant, activists on The Drive, artists in Gastown or urban professionals in Yaletown, every area of the city is different. With this small amount of knowledge it was extremely surprising to slip in-between the overpriced boutique shops in Yaletown to check out the Run With The Heard/Gift of Gab hip hop show at Bar None this past week. Trying desperately to be a quaint hole in the wall, Bar None had only two things going for it on the night of the show – live hip hop and drunk patrons.

If you are not aware of the seven-piece Vancouver band Run With The Heard then you are missing out on one of Vancouver’s best kept secrets. Never identifying as a super group but literally being a group of super people, RWTH challenge everything there is to know about live stage production, musicals genres and the potential possibility of lyricist. Each of the members brings something interesting and perfect to their live show, which is always a good time dance party. Lasting just under an hour, their set ran the gambit of dance possibilities from dark and heavy, to ‘glitchy’, to straight up booty moving music. Playing songs like “Smash the Clock”, ”The Women I Want’ and their newest song ‘Ctrl+Atl+Delete’, their stage presence picked up the audience and murdered them outright with their submissive-sporadic dance movements. These kids know how to command a room and hopefully a full length album will follow shortly this year.

After a quick stage cleanup, Bar None’s stage played host to the visitor from the bay-area, one Timothy Parker; Perhaps much better known as the Legendary MC Gift of Gab. His lyrical resume sets a precedence to his stylings on stage where he is known for tongue-twisting rhymes that border from beautifully insane to almost unintelligible. It was hard to tell if the crowd was more excited about his solo work or just Blackicious classics but for this set his played both. Unfortunately his stage presence left something to be desired but he made up for in his eagerness to please vocally with a solid call and response from an engaged crowd. It is sometimes easy for rappers to become trapped within the live CD playing mode with just a DJ which unfortunately happened in moments during Gift of Gab’s set. As respite he played a bunch of new songs from his upcoming album (due out this summer) including a track called ‘El Gifto Magnificento’.

As a show closer Gift of Gab ended his word-bending set with the Blackalicious classic ‘Chemistry Calisthentics’ which showcases Gab’s wordsmith skills around chemistry vocabulary. With what he lacked in stage presence that evening, Gift of Gab makes up in his tenacious tongue and carefully crafted spoken lyricism.

With a beginning that got the body moving and an end that got the mind thinking, the RWTH/Gift of Gab show was a great spot to spend a few hours cashing in on some crucial rapping and stylings of some musical heros. Some local and some from a ‘far away land. This tiny hole in the wall bar in yuppie land really didn’t know what hit them.

Official Gift of Gab

By Fierce Kitty

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