When the MC Chris show was announced here in Columbia, I was excited in a really big way. Not only was MC Lars and Schaffer the Darklord coming with him, but the show was happening at Mojo's, essentially a bar with its seating removed. Cheap beer and small venue aside, I also missed MC Chris when he came last year to Columbia's Blue Note, so this was an excellent chance to see what I missed. Did the concert live up to the hype? Three words: Oh hell yeah.
The show opened up with Schaffer the Darklord (whose clever acronym comes out to STD) performing his unique brand of hip hop. He took to the stage with a small introduction, followed by an outpouring of energy on stage. He made it clear that he's not a rapping nerd, but rather a nerdy rapper with songs like "The Bender", "Cat People", and "The Tin Man". Overall his delivery was clean, and there were moments where he really flexed his lyrical chops. The sound was very well done, featuring bit-tune beats and synthesizer. I did hear a comment from STD asking about the state of the projector, as there was a large screen behind him. We never did get any visuals during the first set, which was unfortunate.
MC Lars was up next, appearing with Ytcracker and a drummer who provided some bad ass beats on the drum set in the back. Unfortunate for Lars and Yt was the size of the venue. The drum set plus overlapped beats made for a very loud set and muffled vocals. There were a few good moments (when Lars got around to doing "Raven", it was pretty good) and the 8-bit story that was displayed on the projector was cool, however when compared to STD and the upcoming MC Chris, their set was merely ok. One interesting thing was that the entire Lars set was uStreamed live. There was only 4 or so people watching at the time, but it was something neat that they did that other musicians may benefit from trying.
When an artist comes to the stage with The Lion King's "Hakuna Matata" blaring, you know you are in for something special. This was especially the case with MC Chris. The sound issues seemed to have been ironed out by this time and he sounded great. All the classics were hit, from "Wiid", "Hoodie Ninja", "MC Chris is Dead", "Evergreen", "The Tussin" and of course, "Fette's Vette". His flows were clean and concise. There apparently was a mistake with "Fette's Vette" that I didn't even hear, but MC Chris apologized and restarted the track. To be fair, it was even better the second time around.
It was apparent that he was appreciative of the audience, talking throughout the performance about how he's just some guy who happens to make cartoons and how he's so happy to be here. He also spoke about a new cartoon he was pitching to Cartoon Network and told everyone to like the Facebook group "Get the MC Chris Cartoon on Adult Swim" and played a small bit of the intro. Overall it was an amazing concert whose lineup I'd see again. It's unfortunate that they couldn't get MC Lars to sound better, but I guess that's the nature of the beast. I'd highly suggest their shows to anyone who enjoys nerdy hip-hop and a good time.
