“Will Ferrell fuckin’ saved my life!”
After Friday night’s Mr. Lif show at the Middle East Downstairs, we know who to thank for Lif’s continued existence. Lif opened up about the 2006 bus crash that ended the Mr. Lif/Coup tour, and landed four of the passengers in the hospital with serious injuries. As they left San Diego (after a less-than-pleasant experience with the San Diego House of Blues), Lif ordinarily would have crashed in the back of the tour bus. But he chose music over sleep, and put on the newly-released Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse. Shortly thereafter, word got around that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was playing in the front lounge. Unable to resist Mr. Ferrell’s comedic allure, Mr. Lif made his way to the front. Here he remained, until the driver of the bus fell asleep at the wheel, sending the vehicle off the road, dropping 40 feet, flipping, and bursting into flames.
Playing his third show in Boston since the accident, Lif was in fine form. Playing at this more intimate setting than his previous headlining show (at the Paradise), Mr. Lif owned the club.
Allow me to rewind for a moment. I first tried to see Mr. Lif, as part of The Perceptionists, on Aesop’s Bazooka Tooth tour back in 2003. Imagine my chagrin when the dude in front of me at the Ticketmaster outlet snatched the last available ticket for the show. Shit. Down but not out, I made my way to the sidewalk outside the Aladdin Theatre in Portland, OR, hoping to bribe someone on their way to the door. No luck. As I stormed away, I spotted the familiar “dread-fro” walking toward me. Turns out Lif was checking out southeast Portland before taking the stage. He signed my copy of Sleepyheads, which I had packed with me to the show, we spent a few minutes chatting, and we went our separate ways. Although he didn’t get me into the show, he was terribly friendy and down to earth. That impression stuck.
Fast forward to March of this year. Fellow melophobe Joshua Holt and I, ignoring the deadlines of law school, made our way to Mr. Lif’s 10th anniversary show at the Dise. In addition to celebrating Lif’s 10 years in the hip-hop game, a cut of the proceeds from the show went directly to those injured in the bus crash. The experience was incredible. Overflowing with positive energy. Hot freestyles. Mr. Lif had some serious expectations to live up to this time around.
The evening got off to a rough start. Holt, who’d been constantly pumping the Mr. Lif in expectation of the show, succumbed to a massive paper, and couldn’t make it. Thus I trekked through the remnants of 10 inches of show to the Middle East alone. Doors opened at 8:00. I arrived at 8:45. The sign on the door said Mr. Lif wasn’t scheduled to go on until 11:45. That sucked. Nevertheless, I made my way downstairs and surveyed the scene. The floor in front of the stage was empty, except for four guys in their late teens, all sporting minty-fresh Mr. Lif t-shirts, and a somber looking kid in an seated in an upright fetal position on the stage front. Weighing my options, I struck up a conversation with the four Lif fans in front. All college students, they had driven between 2-4 hours to see Lif in person. Unfortunately, they had taken the T into the city, and needed to leave at 12:15 to make it out. Rough. We chilled until 10:00, when the opener Nabo Rawk waltzed onto the stage.
Nabo, and the next two groups, The Camp, and Los Wonder Twins del Rap, didn’t give the crowd much to get up about. The latter’s acapella Pussy Blues brought more boos and heckling than I have ever witnessed at a Boston concert. Rocking the stage just before Lif was Special Teamz, a Boston hip-hop group with solid local history. Their raw set got the crowd jumping.
At 12:05 Mr. Lif stormed the stage in a fury of energy. The crowd erupted as he opened with the classic cut “Jugular Vein.” He ripped through three tracks before formally welcoming the crowd, and introducing the night. In addition to debuting some of his new music, at certain point in the night, the audience would be recorded, and the audio sampled on his upcoming tracks. Sweet. The prospect of being “featured” on a Mr. Lif album got the audience riled up, and Lif took full advantage of this, leading the crowd in chants throughout the evening.
Near the end of the set, with the crowd’s energy dipping slightly, Lif and his two hype men brought the house back with an impromptu freestyle session. Which brings me to one of the things I like about Mr. Lif. He really freestyles. Many “freestyles” at shows are merely canned verses strung together in a live setting. I remember being impressed with Akbar’s freestyles on Mr. Lif’s excellent Live at the Middle East release. I wasn’t so pleased to hear some of the same rhymes on Akbar’s Big Bang Boogie (not an impressive name for a hip-hop cd), which was released a year prior. Anyhow, Lif’s rhymes are clearly coming from the top of his head; they’re not polished, and sometimes they don’t flow terribly smoothly. But they really work, and he spits them with ferocity. It’s much more impressive.
The set was primarily a mix of the old and the brand new, drawing heavily from his 2002 Emergency Rations EP, and letting the crowd in on some “brand new shit” from his upcoming album. Lif wasn’t too forward on details about his new project, though. He simply noted that it was in the works: he hadn’t given himself a deadline yet. I guess this means we should stay excited, but not hold our breath. The tracks he let loose on Friday, and word that he is switching up his style away from the poplitically-aware, intelligent hip-hop that has defined his career, still make this release one to wait for.
It felt as though the night was cut short: there was no encore, odd for a Boston Mr. Lif show. Perhaps it was the venue, or perhaps Mr. Lif simply needed a rest. His energy didn’t waver, even though he was performing with a bad cold. His voice wasn’t all the way there, and in early on, between songs, he made an urgent request for some beer to help his throat make it through the night (a remedy which certainly hasn’t worked for me in the past). Even if it was abbreviated, it was another incredible experience. When I hit the street at 1:30, I started mentally preparing for my next Mr. Lif show.
Mr. Lif Setlist (Pretty Shaky - if you have have any corrections, send us an email)
Jugular Vein
Heavy Artillery
Earthcrusher
Be Out
Playback
Pump Ya Fist
Corner Pocket
Think Cap
Turn That Shit Up!
Home of the Brave
Trail Mix
Word Up
Requiem
I Phantom
Pull Out Ya Cut
Good God
Ol’ Crew
Freestyles
They Made It That Way
Thank You
Choke
Brothaz
Ugh. Paste’s profile of Free Energy made me kind of hate them. So does your review. It’s this unctuous defense of good-time rock-and-roll ("we’re just here to party, and we’re awesome!") that seems more self-serving than fun-loving.
by beth on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 09.41 pm from the entry: Foreign Born + Free Energy - The Knitting Factory (Brooklyn, NY; Mar. 12, 2010)
that inescapable feeling you are referring to, is that like when you hear something and you could have sworn you heard it before because of the nostalgic catchy quality? or is is like when you’ve heard a band exactly like said band?
great post by the way!
by paul on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 03.15 pm from the entry: The Novel Ideas - "The Sky Is A Field" - Borrow It
Whoa! I had no idea she was enegaged. You would never know with the way she behaves! Wow!
by art on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 09.48 am from the entry: Nikki Darlin and John McCauley: 1+1=1
This comment stream is so meta. Great review Kelly.
by chris on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 07.50 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
no prob. The whole album is excellent, combining some of the harder sonics of Los Angeles with the meat of his debut and obviously difficult to summarize in only 50 words… 
I’d say it’s on par with the debut, but better than Los Angeles.
by kelly on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.23 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
By the way, I really liked the mp3 posted. Thanks.
by Joshua H on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.17 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
WHO WROTE THIS...PUKE ! “WHO WROTE THIS...PUKE ! “Picture yourself coasting your bike past space funk palm trees, homeless harpists, vintage video arcades, electronic drum circles, and 60s psychedelic singers who’re waiting for the bus. Cosmogramma is kinda like that if someone suddenly tripped you just as you’re starting to enjoy the ride. But in a good way.””
by Joshua H on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.17 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
