River City Writer

On Sunday night, Brother Ali played the Velvet Underground. It was the best show I’ve been to in a long time. In fact, it was one of the best shows I have ever been to. It’s definitely up in my top 3, hip hop or otherwise.

The crowd was rocking the entire time. Even the opening act—Toki Wright (music page)—got people moving. That’s a rare feat, but Toki has the kind of talent that it takes. In addition to being a damn good emcee, he’s one of the best hype-men I’ve ever seen.

Blueprint, as always, was amazing. He’s definitely a party-rapper. He knows how to make people move, and he’s got songs that are perfect for partying. He seems to have written a lot of political stuff, since I last saw him perform, though.

While he was still partying, and putting on a great show, his newer songs seemed to have a lot more darkness and political cynicism to them. Given the times we’re living in, I suppose that’s to be expected, especially coming from an American artist, who deals with it much more directly than we do here in Canada.

Brother Ali gave one of the most intense performances I’ve ever witnessed. In a weird sort of way, it almost resembled a testimony, or some sort of religious evangelism. The fact that Ali’s music has a definite spiritual aspect to it probably didn’t hurt.

I honestly don’t even know what to say about the experience. It was truly one of those things that you have to experience to understand. Luckily, the Champion will probably be back soon. He said that he plans to come back at least once or twice a year from now on. He also seemed to hint that he’s going to try and put out new material more often (the time between The Undisputed Truth—the album that this tour is promoting—and the previous album was nearly 5 years).

If you didn’t experience Brother Ali this time, I highly recommend that you check him out the next time he’s in Edmonton.

An online friend of mine, who has recently moved to Edmonton, requested that I write more about the music/concert scene here in River City. I told him that I would try to do so.

Hopefully, most of my music-related posts will be about Edmonton-based musicians, but this particular post isn’t. This post is about Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Brother Ali.

Brother Ali is coming to Edmonton on Sunday, October 07 at the Velvet Underground (downstairs at the Starlite Room). Because the show is in the Velvet Underground (formerly the Victory Lounge), Starlite Room membership is not required to get in.

If you’re a fan of hip hop, Ali is one of the best emcees out there right now. His style and lyrics are heavily influenced by the Golden Age of hip hop. KRS-One, Rakim, and Public Enemy are some of his most obvious influences.

If you’re into lyrics that are both smart and witty, with beats that are completely rocking, I highly recommend checking out Brother Ali.

He is one of the most passionate performers I’ve ever heard on a record. The amount of passion that comes through the records can’t be faked. Despite that, something tends to get lost in the studio, so I suspect that he’ll be even more intense live than he is on disc.

Brother Ali plays the Velvet Underground (10030-102 Street) on October 07, 2007 @ 8:00pm. Tickets are $16 ($18 at the door), and are available at Megatunes, Blackbyrd, Foosh, and Soular.

River City Writer was in Calgary on Saturday, doing a reading at the first of the Slarkz Saturday Showcases. I’ve got to say that they’ve got a cool thing going with this six week series of concerts/poetry readings. I had a great time doing my reading (though, I have to admit, it was definitely not my best performance ever), and the bands that I saw were pretty kickin’, so you should definitely check it out if you have a chance.

In fact, Lara T told me that she’s looking for more poets and spoken word artists to perform at the festival, and asked me to spread the word among the Edmonton scene. The whole thing has a very punk rock vibe about it, so I think the ass-kicking rebels from the Raving Poets will be the ones who’ll fit in best with the rest of the performers. If you’re interested, send Lara an email.

If you do decide to read, keep in mind that it’s an outdoor venue, in a public park. There will be children and families present, so the language has to be “family friendly.” I, unthinkingly, violated this unspoken rule within about 10 seconds of taking the stage, and let slip a few more even after the rule had moved from unspoken to, well, spoken. It wasn’t exactly a huge controversy, but swearing in your poems should be avoided as much as possible while performing at the Saturday Showcases.

Having participated in the festival series, and having poked around the Slakrz’s website, I’ve found myself inspired to get more involved in the scene here in Edmonton. I’ve been reading for a few years now, and I’ve had a minor role in organizing the Roar, but I’d like to do more.

I’d like to make realties of some of the things that have been on the back of my mind. I’ve actually already done a lot of thinking about a charity poetry slam idea that came up during a conversation with some of my poetic peers a while back. And, I’d like to organize some sort of regularly occurring poetry sweatshop type deal. I’m not sure where or when these things will happen, yet, but I really want to make them real. Stay tuned to River City Writer for more details.