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Topic subjectReview Fort Minor & Little Brother show Feb 9 @ Atlanta/Roxy
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45424, Review Fort Minor & Little Brother show Feb 9 @ Atlanta/Roxy
Posted by apereira, Fri Feb-10-06 06:49 PM
The Fort Minor & Little Brother show in Atlanta was great! For me it was especially good since I'm a fan of both groups. Often times in concerts one might "sit through" a group to get to the actual group they came to see. Only complaint is that they could've played longer, I guess I'm spoiled by the high standard set by the Roots & their 2 hr+ shows.

Definitely recommend it for fans of either group &/or a good live show!

Here's what I recall was played (after I got back home skimmed thru the relevant album mp3 files to recall what was played)

1st group: Local band. I missed most of this, as I got there at 8:20 & the show apparently actually did start on time at 8p

2nd group: Demigodz
20 mins
Apathy, Celph Titled ("the Rubix Cuban"), Motive

from "Fort Minor We Major mixtape":
Bloc Party
S.C.O.M.
All Night

Also, Apathy did an interesting acapella rap about a dollar bill & how it goes everywhere from a stripper to a church collection plate.

3rd group: Little Brother
40 mins
Phonte & Big Pooh, no 9th Wonder. Also a DJ, singer Darien Brockington & MC Joe Scudda

mainly did tracks from "The Minstrel Show"
Little Brother with Darien Brockington & Joe Scudda
California Agents
Beautiful Morning
The Becoming
Not Enough
Slow It Down
Say It Again
Lovin' It
Watch Me
Still Lives Through

4th group:
Fort Minor
60 mins
HUGE BAND: 3 MCs - Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park & rap duo Styles of Beyond (Ryu & Tak). Also there was conga player Eric Bobo of Cypress Hill, singer Holly Brook, 3 violin/string section, drummer, turntable DJ, keyboardist, 3 backup singers

"Fort Minor We Major" mixtape songs:
100 Degrees
Dolla

Styles of Beyond songs:
Bleach
Mr. Brown

Rising Tied songs:
Remember The Name
Petrified
Feel Like Home
Where'd You Go (with Holly Brook)
In Stereo
Believe Me
High Road
Red To Black

NOTE: skipped their 2 BEST songs IMO "Right Now" (w Black Thought) & "Back Home" (w Common). But hey still damn good.

Some random thoughts:

Little Brother rocked it overcoming two possible challenges. First it seemed only 20% of the show were LB fans, but they seemed to take it as a fun challenge & were able to get the clueless to nod their head or perhaps even wave their hand in the air as if they didn't care! Second, since some of their songs are more mellow (e.g. "hip hop elevator music") it seemed that it could be tough to get the crowd amped with these type of songs. But they focused mainly on the uptempo tracks from the Minstrel Show & kept the crowd amped with classical rap call & response.

Fort Minor's live band was sick, like 14 people. Not quite at the level of the Roots or Ozomatli live bands, but damn good!

Mike made a great point. Dude had won a grammy award the prior night with his group Linkin Park, and performed with Paul McCartney & Jay-Z. Who else does that, the next day rock a show at a small 500-1000 person venue like the Roxy while still having the energy & fun of an underground dude!

Got a chance to chat with Bobo after the show, ironic since I had talked to him before when my brother Luis & I were at a concert in Minneapolis circa 98 with Cyrpess Hill, the Roots, & Black Eyed Peas. Bobo said the Cypress guys are all working on solo projects currently, then will return for another group album. Also got in a photo snapped & e-mailed by another random fan there with SOB's Tak.

Many hip-hop fans claim that current hip hop is dead, sucks, all sounds the same, too materialistic, too violent, etc. 95% of the 30 songs overplayed to death on your local clear channel station meet those descriptions. But in the age of mp3 files & portable players, you don't need radio. And Fort Minor & Little Brother are great examples of new good hip-hop music being created these days. You just have to look around a little bit to find it. A great start would be listening to 2 of 2005's best albums, "The Minstrel Show" & "The Rising Tied".

Finally, this is somewhat corny but also true. Our American society seems to be getting more polarized, be it income level, ethnicity, political & philosophical views, or geographic region. Basically there's very little sense of community, it's everyone do for self. This concert was one of the rare counterexamples to this trend. Where else do you have blacks, asians, whites, & latinos, not only in the crowd but also the MUSICIANS ON STAGE (besides Ozomatli)?

AGAIN, HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SHOW!