Since We Last Spoke...

I've used that joke 10 other times. OK, I'm sorry, I'll stop, but it's hard to lay off such HOT material. Yesterday was RJD2 day here in Columbus (unofficially, like that Wendy's spokesman in the commercial), which was pretty sweet. Since his new album, Since We Last Spoke, was officially released yesterday, he made an in-store appearance at Used Kids and performed at the Wexner Center on campus. I stopped in at Used Kids after work and there were alot of people in there. He was running a contest where he would play a record of an old TV show theme, and if you could name the show, then you won a prize, like a copy of the album or other stuff. Sadly, I didn't win anything. Then he went back to playing records and signing autographs. I had him sign a poster and told him the last time I shook his hand was at Bonnaroo (ooff, don't get ol' man Patton started on THAT story). Anyway, that was fun, saying hey to all the hip-hop scenesters and whatnot.
Like I said, the performance was at the Wexner Center, in a performance space Andy and I weren't too familiar with. The first opener was Automato, who definitely exceeded my limited expectations. Automato is the rap act produced by the DFA, currently known for all their disco-punk productions, like The Rapture. I can imagine that on record it wouldn't sound too hot, but live in concert, with a live band behind him, it was pretty good. Maybe a slightly artsier, more electronic Ordinary Peoples (for you Columbus types).

Next up was Diverse, a man I was happy to see in concert, as the underground hype and my desire to buy his CD are ever-increasing. Like ol' Pap Napier detailed earlier, Diverse was big into crowd participation, but it didn't come over forced, but pretty natural. His album is produced by a bunch of underground heavyweights, like RJD2, Madlib, and Prefuse 73, and those beats were bangin' out of the speakers (and threatening to damage my eardrums). His DJ wasn't too hot, but it was an overall great set, that of course led to me buying his CD (and the CD single for "Explosive" which includes that video of him playing ping-pong with RJ and Lyrics Born and whoever).
I thought RJ rocked it. It was about an hour-long, four-turntable (plus a sound machine of some sort) set, with a weird video presentation (including a camera focused on the tables) playing on the big screen behind him. He mixed in elements of alot of old classics, and some new stuff, and I was dancing in place for most of the set. Sure, the coolbots were in full effect, but you can't let that stop you. His encore was a solo acoustic guitar rendition of the one vocal track from the new album, which was surprisingly good.
Overall, a fine night of hip-hop. I said hey to Jason and Pos, who both liked my Nighthawks T-shirt, and finally met the renowned DJ Goldfinger of OSU's KBUX Underground radio (Thursday nights 10-12, bitches!), who seems to be a nice guy. Man, this new job seems to be helping the bloggin', huh? Time to get out of here and get my sister (Katie) a bday present. Later, yo.