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Houston...03/16/2012...Warehouse Live...day before St. Patty's (aka NCAA tourney, white people and beer, etc).
Short story, I liked the show more than I liked the live album mainly because I liked the tracklisting AND the transitions more. And he didn’t rock out for a lot of this show. MAYBE 1/3..if that. This man played a chunk of my favorite songs..like unbelievably so considering the choices he had with his catalog. However, he didn’t play ANYTHING from the Popular album that wasn’t on the released EP (so…no Dimples). He skipped Use in Case of Emergency too (no Funny or Come Tomorrow). He also didn’t do Character or Hidden Charm. The transitions were slick and awesome. He got rocky in the middle of the show, but he kept it pimpin’ for most of the show. The crowd was a LOT of sisters with naturals/fros/dreads/braids, squirrelly brothers with the same, and a little of everything else. And me in the middle of it with a crew cut in a pimp blue Express shirt that fades into white at the bottom. The sisters knew EVERY song from the first album to the point of karaoke. To the point where Van said ‘let me get my song back now’ during one of them. Haha. There was somewhere around 100 folks. I won’t miss him in Houston again.
Jimaveli-length story (tracklisting): No preshow from what I know..just a few squirrelly videos playing when I walk in at 9:30-ish..Mayer, Amy, etc. He went on a little bit before/around 10 and was up there about an hour and a half. Him and three folks (for most of the show). He just popped up there seemingly outta the blue and went right into it. I used technology to write down the tracklisting as it was going, so I’d be able to share it…
1. Lowest 1 of my desires! REALLY!? Did he read my post? Jammin. Midrange tempo’d it. Damn near like when you used to sing Isley’s Fight the Power and you’d lean into saying ‘BULLSHIT’, everyone leaned into ‘FUCK’ when the time came..haha. 2. Jammin ass interlude 3. Out of the sky! REALLY!? Did this dude jump into my mind for this tracklisting!? Did he expect naturals, braids, and fros? What’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next… 4. THIS MOTHERFUCKER WENT INTO AN OHIO PLAYERS “ECSTACY” REPRISE! ‘Love will never do without you!!!’ I can’t arrive at an explanation of how good this sounded to me..and to get surprised by it? I hereby demand he does a full, sloppy, 6-minute cover of that song. Or somebody needs to since its one of my top 10 songs ever. Somebody blacking out and making it the 6-minute jamathon it should’ve been…it could be a Niggas in Paris, play it 3 times at every show-level song for SOMEBODY. Do it Van..do it. 5. Attention. Original album style. Maybe even slower and funkier. Wow. 6. Rocked up interlude 7. North Hollywood..new album. Yep. I’m still jamming since I have this just about everything the man has dropped. 8. BACK TO Attention. Back to slow/funky. 9. Funky lude…’lifts weights with her kiss’… 10. Rock cover…jamming…Pixxies? 11. Song I don’t know…brewing, still slow and jamming 12. Into a jamming version of Plum…so I don’t need to send any stern emails. 13. Funky lude…man…this dude is jamming. 14. Song I don’t know…jamming. And then… 15. Who will love me in winter! And he is STILL slow and funky..he sees them fros! 16. Watching you go crazy is driving me insane..rocky..I like it. 17. New album song that I don’t’ know yet..rocky..jamming. 18. Lude…he saw the pain from the fro babies and gave the ‘rock music is our music ya’ll’ commentary before going into… 19. Moving Targets..new album section…jamming..here’s his spot for a slow jam medley…c’mon Van…didn’t do it… 20. Eyes Like Pearls..folks know that song? Aight… 21. Another cover lude.. 22. IF I TAKE YOU HOME…oh hell yeah! 23. Highlights = yessir..changed around and less funky…arggg! Its still highlights though so I’m good. 24. Being a Girl!? Okay..dude is in my mind for this tracklisting… 25. Mysterious hustle..jamming.. 26. Mysterious hustle ‘stay close to me’ reprise…jamming 27. The band rolls out and its just Van…awww shit…I know something jamming is coming…now I find out what songs the sisters all know, cuz that’s what he’ll be playing. 28. Somebody (not me…really! It wasn’t me!) screams out Priest or Police and this mofo goes right into it…guitar only..tonight is my night for the tracklisting! “E-ro-tic conversation!” and that entire part of the song through ‘I will be waiting for you’ = 87% of the crowd singing the whole song. Hell…the second verse had half of the crowd doing karaoke. That had to feel good to Van for a song that ‘old’ on an album essentially nobody bought when it dropped. 29. Down here in hell with you…ahhh…this one had a video…so yep…the sisters know this entire song too. ‘What would I do if we were perfect? Where would I go for disappointment’ = whole room karaoke. 30. If this isn’t a lead-in for Secon…yep, it’s Seconds of Pleasure to close. For real this time. It was straight up black women united choir karaoke.
I should go to more shows like these. I like the hell out of the artists I like. Van Hunt falls into that range for sure. He sounds pretty good live and the band is clearly dope. The way he delivers the lyrics regardless of the arrangement gives the impression that HE still likes these songs..that’s refreshing. I’m excited that he’s still making music and doing shows even if he’s criminally ‘unpopular’ considering the general cleverness of his writing. And it ain’t like he should be over anyone’s head. These songs are mostly about..well…fuckin…okay…relationships. And yeah..he ain’t above getting pop-rocky from time to time, but there’s a twang to it that meets you halfway most of the time. And you gotta be who you are with your music. You can’t make ‘Attention’ 50 times just because the fro babies will take that from you. Looking through his catalog in my iTunes…he should have hits. Like 11 hits. I still haven’t figured out where he messed up. Maybe he just didn’t play the game when he had his chances. To me, he's Saadiq with REALLY GOOD writing as opposed to the freestyle, jam session, Slave-ish writing.
Jimaveli
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