As kind of a belated-birthday present to me, Sherry and I went to Minneapolis to see Lyrics Born live at The Foundation. It was almost a year to the date from last year’s show. This show was pretty much halfway through the Auto Reverse Tour. One pleasant difference from last year’s show was that the temperature was much milder so hanging outside waiting for the venue to open wasn’t as bad.
The Foundation made some changes since last year’s show. They added a stage and DJ Booth opposite of where the band performed. This stage took up a lot of the old dance floor. I guess that where the band was set up isn’t really a stage. You can see in some of the pictures below that the band is pretty much at the same level as the crowd who is behind a metal fence. As much as I like to see acts at the Foundation, it’s a bit odd and difficult to get a good view of the band without being up against the barrier. We learned something from last year’s show– order bottle service! This gives you a dedicated place to sit and you have a guaranteed waitress. Bottle service for hard liquor is a lot more expensive than wine– which is what we ordered. We got a Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz, which happily was pretty good and is available cheaply at our favorite grocery store. The waitress sat us up on the stage opposite the band on a plush leather couch all by ourselves. The VIP area and access to this stage were roped off, so we were only sharing the area with the VIP folks and some other photographers.
There was no opening act, so the Foundation DJ who plays most of the Saturday shows (I guess) spun a really nice set of hiphop, triphop, Quannum/Solesides and some 80’s r&b. A nice set that was a crowd pleaser and a good warm-up to LB and Crew. While that was going on, I got to meet Justin Berger who currently manages Lyrics Born’s website and MySpace page in addition to documenting the tour in progress by videotaping and creating the LBTV content. Justin is a really cool guy and hung out with us on the “stage” filming the whole show with a mini-DV cam.
The show was in a lot of respects very similar to last year’s show and the same as the Overnite Encore CD. The band lineup was different from last time– The ever-present Joy was still there, as well as Uber-funker Uriah Duffy on bass and B’Nai Rebelfront on guitars. Mike Blankenship (aka Cap’n Patches according to on LBTV episode) replaced Kat Ounao on keys and P-Dub replaced Darius Minaee. This band was just as tight as last year’s lineup.
Ultimately, I thought the show was great– the interplay between Joy and LB is great and a real crowd-pleaser especially during the “Love Me So Bad” duet. Uriah Duffy provides some great showmanship during his bass solos. The new songs that we heard from this show– “2 Hott 2 Cold” and “Hot 2 Deff”– both fit in with the older songs. The songs from Later That Day at this point are considered “classics” after having been toured constantly since the album’s release in 2003. I was pleased to hear th e new tracks brought out as it gave us some different moments in the show. Some of the “skits” were the same as last time and the album like the crowd teaser before “Callin’ Out” where LB threatens to go home. He does it well and gets the crowd going, but I hope to see some different stuff next time. I’m sure that Lyrics Born is already thinking about how he’s going to tour after the new album drops in March of ’08. The move from a samples and turntables show to a live band show was a huge deal at the time and I really think takes his show to the next level performance-wise. I hope he continues with this idea into the next tour.
I thought a really nice shoutout/props to Minneapolis was that during one of the early songs in the set (maybe “Stop Complaining?”) the band broke it down and they all started doing “The Bird” popularized by Prince proteges Morris Day and the Time seen in the movie “Purple Rain.” Very cool, although I don’t know how many people in the audience were old enough to remember The Time!
Here is the setlist from this show:
1. Hello
2. Shake It Off
3. I Like It, I Love It
4. Stop Complaining / Jam
5. Aim for the Flickering Flame
CAN YOU FEEL It (intro into pack up remix)
6. Pack Up Remix / Rich Boy (2nd verse had a Rich Boy sample added in to the song)
7. Knock Knock
8. 2 Hott 2 Cold *new song
9. Hot 2 Deff *new song
BAND INTROS
10. Callin’ Out
11. I Changed My Mind
12. Bad Dreams
13. Love Me So Bad
14. Do That There
Visit Lyrics Born’s MySpace Page to hear a live version of “Hot 2 Deff” with guest Chali 2na from the forthcoming Everywhere at Once dropping March 18, 2008 on Anti- Records.
Here is my flickr Photoset of the show with extra shots.
Here are pictures taken by BBGunBilly hosted on the Foundation website.