been far, been near, and all in between

Fancypants Hognose Snakes

After a short life of constant pregnancy and lactation, her body completely depleted, this cow can no longer walk. She collapses and lies in faeces.

Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic, DJ Big Wiz & Busdriver @ Metro 3/4/13

I would like to tell a story to start out this review. On May 19th 2011, a younger me made the trek to Lincoln Hall to specifically see the supporting act of the night: Kimya Dawson. The artist, widely know for her work on the Juno soundtrack, played a beautiful set of songs that evoked her own personal stories. By the end, I was inspired and filled with energy. I was not too sure what was to come next as I had not really done my research, so I kept my space near the front of the stage. Out came Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz. They blew me away! They were fantastic and I was thoroughly enjoying myself up until (as I was still in the front) Aesop Rock decided to pick me out of everyone else to decide what song he should do next. I tried to play it cool by shouting “Anything, play anything!” which only succeeded in expressing the fact that that I had never heard Aesop Rock before in my life.

That is the story of my most embarrassing concert moment. So when Aesop Rock returned to Chicago on March 4th 2013, I made sure to be prepared (not that it was hard, I have been listening to Aesop Rock ever since that night in May) and surprisingly it happened again. This time it was Rob Sonic who came up to me and, although they didn’t actually play the song, I was able to not completely embarrass myself again.

Mondays show was just as good as the first time I saw Aesop Rock. Although Kimya was not present to open, Busdriver filled in nicely and was able to warm up the crowd and get them moving a little bit with his hyper-literate, intellectual style of rap. His only setback was the tiny table he was given, forcing him to be hunched over or to be sitting on his knees for much of the performance.

Next up was Aesop Rock who brought along Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz who really got the crowd going with a set consisting of songs from Aesop, Rob and the trios side project, Hail Mary Mallon. With music videos and other graphics being portrayed in the background, the trio performed for nearly two hours and even consisted of a solo from DJ Big Wiz who is a master of the turntables. The highlight of the night though had to be when Aesop Rock brought out Busdriver to give a lucky audience member a haircut right on stage. They closed the night out with two old songs that left long time fans feeling like they weren’t left out and newer fans realizing that the rapper has more to offer than just Skelethon.