Post by Dark 7 Invader on Feb 17, 2006 4:35:50 GMT -5
The fact that the New York stop on the Wu-Tang Clan's reunion tour fell on Valentine's Day did seem a funny coincidence. It's just not a date-night activity that leaps immediately to mind: checking in with the rap crew that in the 90's pretty much redrew the city map, with Staten Island as the epicenter of phantasmagoric violence and intrigue. But in fact, aside from the expected plugs for new products, the show at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Tuesday was all about love — dedicated, as is the group's first tour in nine years, to the memory of its founding member Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died in November 2004.
On Tuesday, his compelling, jittery unpredictability, key to the group's once-exhilarating chaos factor, was replaced by the warm but decidedly unmenacing energy of Method Man, whose television and movie career has made him the group's most visible member.
Outfitted in bright red and orange winter gear, as opposed to the darker clothes favored by other members, Method Man, along with the animated Ghostface Killah, was one of the night's focal points. But while Method Man's percussive gruffness cut through the often-sludgy sonics on songs like "Method Man" and "Bring the Pain," the haunting timbre of Ghostface's voice was often swallowed up by the group's legendarily baroque din. The fuzzy acoustics of the room, which blurred the beats, meant that the intended transportive effect was really achieved only on more treble-heavy songs like "Shadowboxing" from the GZA/Genius album "Liquid Swords," produced to the hilt by RZA.
Along with mourning its friend, the group seemed also to mourn the fact that their trademark sound is heard nowhere on the radio today. They even played a clip from the Atlanta-based group D4L's interminably cheesy radio hit, "Laffy Taffy," to loud boos, before chastising New York radio for not giving the concert more publicity.
But the mainly white Hammerstein crowd, with arms raised frequently to form cross-handed "Wu wings," was obviously not enamored of Southern snap. In fact, you didn't get the sense they follow current hip-hop much at all. But they knew their Wu, shouting back stanza upon stanza of byzantine verse, not only on the group's classic 1993 single "C.R.E.A.M.," but on Ghostface's elegiac "Ghost Deini."
The group was perhaps oversolicitous of a bygone cutting-edge status, calling often for shows of respect. As the audience chanted "O-D-B!," holding cellphones and lighters aloft, the group, which has pledged some of its tour proceeds to Ol' Dirty Bastard's family, invited his mother onto the stage and performed his songs "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Brooklyn Zoo." After some crowd-surfing by Method Man and a triumphant version of "Triumph," during which Masta Killa's son stepped up to echo his father's verse, the group called for the Wu wings and then, in a tender gesture, a peace sign. When the show let out at 11:30, the audience emerged to find the street blocked off and the building faced by a line of mounted police, waiting for disorder that never came.
The Wu-Tang Clan is in Florida this weekend: Revolution in Fort Lauderdale tonight, Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg tomorrow and Hard Rock Live in Orlando on Sunday.
props: www.nytimes.com
On Tuesday, his compelling, jittery unpredictability, key to the group's once-exhilarating chaos factor, was replaced by the warm but decidedly unmenacing energy of Method Man, whose television and movie career has made him the group's most visible member.
Outfitted in bright red and orange winter gear, as opposed to the darker clothes favored by other members, Method Man, along with the animated Ghostface Killah, was one of the night's focal points. But while Method Man's percussive gruffness cut through the often-sludgy sonics on songs like "Method Man" and "Bring the Pain," the haunting timbre of Ghostface's voice was often swallowed up by the group's legendarily baroque din. The fuzzy acoustics of the room, which blurred the beats, meant that the intended transportive effect was really achieved only on more treble-heavy songs like "Shadowboxing" from the GZA/Genius album "Liquid Swords," produced to the hilt by RZA.
Along with mourning its friend, the group seemed also to mourn the fact that their trademark sound is heard nowhere on the radio today. They even played a clip from the Atlanta-based group D4L's interminably cheesy radio hit, "Laffy Taffy," to loud boos, before chastising New York radio for not giving the concert more publicity.
But the mainly white Hammerstein crowd, with arms raised frequently to form cross-handed "Wu wings," was obviously not enamored of Southern snap. In fact, you didn't get the sense they follow current hip-hop much at all. But they knew their Wu, shouting back stanza upon stanza of byzantine verse, not only on the group's classic 1993 single "C.R.E.A.M.," but on Ghostface's elegiac "Ghost Deini."
The group was perhaps oversolicitous of a bygone cutting-edge status, calling often for shows of respect. As the audience chanted "O-D-B!," holding cellphones and lighters aloft, the group, which has pledged some of its tour proceeds to Ol' Dirty Bastard's family, invited his mother onto the stage and performed his songs "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Brooklyn Zoo." After some crowd-surfing by Method Man and a triumphant version of "Triumph," during which Masta Killa's son stepped up to echo his father's verse, the group called for the Wu wings and then, in a tender gesture, a peace sign. When the show let out at 11:30, the audience emerged to find the street blocked off and the building faced by a line of mounted police, waiting for disorder that never came.
The Wu-Tang Clan is in Florida this weekend: Revolution in Fort Lauderdale tonight, Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg tomorrow and Hard Rock Live in Orlando on Sunday.
props: www.nytimes.com