https://twitter.com/itsthereal/status/1265101581818777600

ItsTheReal
@itsthereal
Who's the biggest artist you saw perform in a small room?

I saw the Okayplayer tour in '99 with The Roots, SV, and some other acts at this small club in SF. Also saw Me'shell at a small club in SF during her Bitter tour.

J Cole performed at my University campus, which would have been just after his first album (The Sideline Story) was released.

The room was a tiny space round the back of the university pub, which was doubled up as a room I did many of my exams in... probably fit max 100 - 150 people in.

The rest of his UK tour were at bigger venues - places like the Camden Electric Ballroom, or the 02 Academies across the country. I have NO idea how the university got him to the student union, but was one of my all time uni experiences.

prob amy winehouse at Joes Pub (first N.american show)
maybe jay-z at radio city? i guess thats a "small" venue considering he can sell out whatever he wants

The Lauryn GD posts had me 'eminiscing

I saw the Fugees in between the first and second albums
Fugee-La wasn't even released yet
In a middle school auditorium
Doubt there was even 100 people there
My brother got her autograph after the show

IRT the Roots, can't remember the exact year, but I'm pretty confident it was after Illadelph
I remember the day...it was snowing...alot
We had tix to see them at Dances...which is basically a nightclub...with just a big main room...and a small stage on one end...
Doubt there was even 50 people there
I remember the stage didn't rise very high...maybe to my knee
We were standing close enough to dap up BT
?uest was kinda intimidating...after the show in a bubblegoose...looking like he did not want to be fucked wit

Before he was big, of course.

>Before he was big, of course.

Afu Ra was there as well. My boy said he bumped into him by accident in the bathroom and came back and was like “damn I should’ve told him I whirlwind thru cities!”

>>Before he was big, of course.
>
>Afu Ra was there as well. My boy said he bumped into him by
>accident in the bathroom and came back and was like “damn I
>should’ve told him I whirlwind thru cities!”

Cause I saw the Roots perform on the daym street in Philly.. for some On The Go function. I saw Jewel play to like 10 people at a coffee shop (THE LAST DROP) in the early 90's. Before she was anybody.

But POST them getting large... I saw Jeru tha Damaja perform at a bar about 10 years ago....

Was kinda sad. Couldn't believe I was watching one of my favorite artists from the 90's play for some unaware drunks at a random bar. I also couldn't believe how short he was in person.


werd.

I saw Phonte, 9th, and Median on tour to support Charity Starts at Home/The Wonder Years/The Sender at a club that I would say is the size of an average-sized bar (I don't know if that means something wildly different around the country) in Chicago.
Kinda funny, my homeboy and I usually come a little late to concerts, because some venues, such as the House of Blues in Chicago, start several hours late under normal conditions. I told my friend, "Let's get to this one on time, because I bet Phonte works his shows like a regular job -- clock in on time, clock out on time".
Sure enough (this is not a complaint), Median opened, Tay started exactly on time, no encore, ghost the moment he put the mic down.
9th DJ'd for them, came down at the end of Phonte's set, and leaned against the front of the stage to meet fans and take flicks (got my vinyl copy of TWY signed. Thanks 9th!).
Rapsody didn't perform, but she was selling T-shirts at the merch table next to the bar. It felt like I was one of the only people that recognized her.
Very dope experience.

that was cool

which is a tiny little sweat box venue inside an Episcopalian church

I have seen RJD2, Brother Ali and a few other shows there.

She was with some super young dude that (I think this is the sequence of events) she married, got into a physical altercation with, broke up, and remarried and went back out on tour.

The vibe was weird and I don't even remember what songs she did.

The Palladium in Worcester, Ma.

Back in 99 when Things Fall Apart dropped.

Best show ever.

That show was great. Biz Markie, Reflection Eternal (!!), Common, then De La Soul.

Not sure why Pharoahe wasn't on this leg of the tour; I know he was part of the lineup in other cities.


>The Palladium in Worcester, Ma.
>
>Back in 99 when Things Fall Apart dropped.
>
>Best show ever.

Even have a live recording of the show.
Stage was about 10 credit cards tall off the floor.
This was after Best By Far.
And if I had realized how rare it was that he was performing in the states, I'd have tried to enjoy it more.

He had keys, drums, bongos (a girl from detroit), bass and two BG's.
One of which was Chris Ballard.

Solid show.

You can throw your shoe from the front door and hit the back wall

That holds 160 people.

The Roots.
Jaime Foxx.
Queen Latifah.
Kool AND the Gang (they barely fit.)
Corrine Bailey Ray.
Tori Kelly.
Nelly??

Others that i can't rememebr.

... in Boston in 2010. My friend came across tickets via a kid we went to high school with who my friend kept in touch with but I hadn't really. This kid was a for-hire drummer for touring and had been hired by Bilal.

It was super intimate, like a wine bar/dinner party type thing with maybe 30-45 people total in attendance. We all sat at small tables and they played for like 2 hours near the front. Before and after the show we got to chill with Bilal, our HS friend, and the rest of the band at the bar and just chop it up. It was really really cool.

Either 2004 or 2005. Amazing show. I think they had been booked kinda last minute so it was super informal; they came out piecemeal, one playing a solo song, the other playing a solo, then playing a song they were both featured on. They were even asking the crowd for song suggestions, that's how laid back the whole thing was.

One of the cooler shows I've ever attended just cuz of how different it was. Plus they were both two of my absolute favorite artists at the time so I knew pretty much all the songs which obviously makes any show that much better.

I saw Black Star in Chicago once.
They brought Common out for "Respiration" (!!!)...I figure I really got lucky, too, because it's not like this was the Soulquarian/Rawkus era...this was like, 2011

I've seen Kweli and Comm both together and separate probably over 40x between them. I've seen Mos like twice. So unfortunately I've never been fortunate enough to see Respiration live. That must've been such a cool surprise.


>I saw Black Star in Chicago once.
>They brought Common out for "Respiration" (!!!)...I figure I
>really got lucky, too, because it's not like this was the
>Soulquarian/Rawkus era...this was like, 2011

The symbol album was out and he was doing an autograph signing. The whole band was there signing cd booklets and covers.I had the gold cover for that cd. He signs it with the symbol rather than his name.

Crowds left after the signing was over. My gf knew someone working at the store. He said we should stick around. Surprise! He starts doing a show not long after. About 4-5 songs. I still have that signed cd box.

In Greater Cleveland there’s this spot called the Grog Shop. It’s definitely a very small venue. I caught him and a few hip hop underground acts there (on separate occasions).

Roots at Frat-like house in college in 1996. Lizzo at the Google Holiday Party last year.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>RE: Fugees at Tramps in NYC in 96, Sublime at Wetlands in NYC n 1996
>Roots at Frat-like house in college in 1996. Lizzo at the
>Google Holiday Party last year.

but we were lucky out here in Amsterdam. So many artists come through and the main venues in the centre only hold like 1500-2000.

saw so many shows there.

Predator tour with Cube, kam & Lenchmob was my first at 15. midnight marauders tour. Das efx with the fugees opening in 94, i even talked to Lauryn , no idea who she was. the roots multiple times early on with Rahzel and the hall filled with plants if i remember correctly. Wutang in 97 a week before wu forever dropped was another crazy one. Em & Dre at the height of their succes in like 2001? a couple of Nas shows, some classic, some forgettable. I think also the last show Big L did (with AG, Dilated Peoples, X-cutioners), there even might be vinyl of that. good memories.

i remember this one time Pharoahe Monch was supposed to perform with Black Star and Mos & Talib cancelled last minute so instead it was Common and Rahzel. Simon Says was just out and people were so hyped over that track. When he finally did it the house just came down. the floors and walls were shaking and they were just keepin it going with com jumping in with some verses and out of nowhere ice-t comes up from the crowd and also joins in. they had the whole place jumping mad. front to back. i thought shit was about to collapse. one of the craziest i have seen.

We need details.

>We need details.

I went to the LotusFlower website event at his house.

Did you get a chance to talk to him at all?

I was gonna come in here and submit my own "Prince, at a 'mid size' club sometime in the early 2000s' (it was a club in Virginia Beach maybe around the size of the 9:30 club in DC?)

and here you come with 'in his living room' lol...you win! :)

it's "intimate" to say the least. Been there many times, but obviously, that one has special meaning. He ended the set with Black Hole Sun...because, of course.

It was a banquet hall in a hotel, but still pretty small for a band of their stature. Of course, this was the current "Beach Boys," so sans Brian Wilson. It was weird, but the bizarreness made it kind of fun. The fish was okay.

>The fish was okay.

Seen Rakim at Slim's in SF. Not a super small spot, but pretty intimate considering he's a living legend.

Saw Badu dj at Yoshi's SF, but we walked out on that.. she was horrible on the decks lol.

Saw Black Eyed Peas back in '98 at this spot called Arena in SF. They were basically performing right in the crowd, abstract hiphop dance moves and all. Place couldn't have been bigger than most pubs.

Deftones at the Press Club in Sacramento.. must have been '97? That joint was tiny.

Prince, Club 1150 in Atlanta, saw Living Color in a small in Savannah, GA about 6 months before they blew, Chris in a comedy club, also in Savannah

Great show.
RIP to Slims man, bummed it’s closing down for good.

other than that, Oddisee in a closet (lol). Forgot the venue, somewhere just outside of DTLA.

Venue says it could hold 1,500 people but I've never believed that. He was the closer for Curren$y's Smoker's Club tour in 2011. He walked on top of the crowd while they held him up with their hands and did multiple cuts from Blackout! making a point to do Redman's verses with some of his inflections. It was wild cool. I also hung out on the secondary bus with Fiend before the show, and it was fun talking to him about his transition from Mystikal-type rapper to Champagne sipping R&B guy.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

at a club that reminded me of House of Blues layout.
Squared U Shape room upper balcony and standing area couple steps off the pit floor on lower level by the bars on either side and behind the crowd.
Stage in front of you.

He then did 2 hours of other joints.
Was a 5 city AG tour.

One of the craziest shows I’ve ever been to, Hov at that point was a mega star only playing arenas.