Daily Loaf

“mc chris” does not capitalize his handle. Googling him, I found he is pretty adamant about it. He also doesn’t even capitalize song titles. [Photo courtesy of mc chris' myspace.]

Whereas some bands put on lackluster performances and call their concerts “shows” for the sake of monosyllabic brevity, I Fight Dragons put on a spectacle of a performance worthy of the term “show.”

The band started off as any good mixtape should — with a fast paced, hit-‘em-with-the-best-you-got opener, “Don’t You.” The song set the tone by showing the band’s appreciation of musicianship as well as showmanship.

As clips from Metroid and Super Mario Bros. were projected on the wall behind them, I Fight Dragons showed they could write catchy pop songs with selections like “No One Likes Superman Anymore.” On “The Faster the Treadmill…,” the band sounded surprisingly like Owen, a side project of Mike Kinsella with similar electronic noodling and emotional lyrics.

Eight-bit blips and bloops, video game controllers as instruments and shared costuming were all part of the fun. Each of the band’s six members had on a symbol of a superhero on their chest (Batman, Superman, Green Lantern). That is, except for Laura Grene, a singer and Nintendo player for the band who we will forgive for the lack of continuity because she was cute. That’s right — she played a controller. And the controller wasn’t the only converted instrument the band had on stage. In addition to normal guitar, bass, and drums, there was a converted Power Glove, Power Pad and Rock Band Guitar, all completely playable.

Godspeed to I Fight Dragons and their newly-formed band. What a show!

Here’s a clip of the sextet at Dragon*Con in Atlanta.

Whole Wheat Bread perpetuated bullshit in their set following I Fight Dragons. The African-American punk band used the tired old themes of money, bitches and pimping in their set. These themes are what make mainstream hip-hop today so boring. It’s as if these same four or five elements are recycled in every song. (Fuck tha police! Where’s the weed? Bitches ain’t shit!).

The only difference with Whole Wheat Bread is that they rapped and sang about these topics in the context of fast-paced punk rock. The band had the swagger and bravado of mainstream rap with the general destruction advocated by punk rockers. Fittingly, they call their style of music “Dirty South punk rock.”

The group’s large collection of fans thoroughly enjoyed the concert and expressed themselves as such by careening into one another with general abandon. Or, to use more punk rock terms, they went apeshit in the pit. However, the music was nothing remarkable — generic, trite. Or, to use more punk rock terms, it was the same old shit.

Here’s a clip of them at the Afro-punk festival in Brooklyn.

mc chris came on stage with three notable accoutrements: a white Mac laptop, a microphone, and an amazing annoying, high-pitched voice. For the unfamiliar, the rapper who became famous for voice acting on Adult Swim sounds like a pipsqueak on helium.

During the set, mc chris did his brand of high-pitched speed rap for an appreciative crowd. He played tracks from 2009’s Apple Tummy like “fett’s vette” and “white kids love hip-hop.” It sounded about what you expect from someone with only a microphone and a laptop — a dude rapping on a stage against his own drum machine beats. The fans loved it, many cheering loudly whenever any Adult Swim references were made.

But the speed of his rhymes were his downfall for anyone trying to figure out what he was saying since his rapid clip speed was faster than the processing system of people’s brains. IwentotthestoretogetsomewaterbuthenI…Ahhhh! Slow down!

He played tracks like “wiid,” about how marijuana has always been there for him; and “hoodie ninja,” about, uh, being a ninja in a hoodie. The fans in the crowd were mouthing the lyrics, especially to a song called “pizzabutt,” which had the crowd singing along to nearly the entire first verse.

The banter between mc chris and the crowd was very amusing. He started telling a joke, probably with more than a little bit of irony, about our current President, Barack Obama. He said that pigs would fly when we elected a black President. When a guys in the crowd shouted out the punch line (Swine flu!), he called the guy upstage and pretended like he was going to kick him out. (He didn’t, citing that since the guy had a beer, he was contributing to the economy and was probably all right.)

Overall, it was a pleasant set — even if my ears are still ringing from that helium-high voice.

Here’s an interview of mc chris with clips of him live.

Posted in Concerts, Music | Leave a comment