Anybody Killa, P.R.E.A.C.H.
The Muse, Nashville, TN
$12
See all the photos from this show here
Considering that I live in Nashville, I find it really strange that I've had two opportunities to see Anybody Killa (ABK) in concert here within the last five months. But hey, I'm definitely not complaining! His show last November at the Muse was my first Psychopathic show, and I really enjoyed it, so I was definitely not going to miss his return.
Work was nice enough to let me leave an hour and 15 minutes early, and when I arrived, there wasn't much going on just yet. After getting the best parking spot yet behind the Muse, I met Pamela in the parking lot on the way in. The first thing we heard were rumblings about Kung Fu Vampire being MIA, AMB not being able to play since one of the guys wasn't there, and now ABK was refusing to play. Knowing how incorrect info can spread like wildfire, we both chalked this up to being like the telephone game...someone said something, then someone overheard it and changed the story a little, then someone overheard that, and so on.
Since nothing was going on yet, we sat down outside and chatted, and mingled with the others waiting for the show. Eventually we heard that Kung Fu Vampire was definitely not going to be there, which was fine since I'd never really listened to them.
The first band, S.G.F., went on a little before 9:00 They were awesome though, with elaborate makeup and blood, and some great rhymes to go with it.
Chick in the tank top is not impressed
Near the end of the set, they stirred up a mosh put and a couple of the guys jumped right in, while a strobe light was making everything look like it was happening in slow motion. Wild! I would definitely head back out to see these guys again since they were VERY entertaining.
After a break, P.R.E.A.C.H. was the next artist to perform. I wasn't sure what to expect with him either, but he was fantastic. Great beats, great lyrics, and great interaction with the crowd.
Tank Top is also not impressed with P.R.E.A.C.H.
lulz She looks miniature in this picture
One of the guys he was with also handed out CDs and lighters that said P.R.E.A.C.H. on them, so I ended up with a nice yellow lighter too. I was very pleasantly surprised with his performance. It's so awesome to go to shows not expecting to find any new artists to pay attention to, then come out as a fan of one of the openers! (Happened last time too when Critical Bill opened for ABK, and I figured out that Critical Bill was exactly the style of music I enjoy!)
With the first two openers having been big hits, Bones from AMB came out on stage to announce that Otis had had a family emergency and had to fly home, so there wouldn't be an AMB performance that night. Not a biggie for me since I'm not a big fan of AMB. He then introduced local Juggalo rappers Lords of Chaos.
Poor guys...you can tell that they're new to performing since they seemed to struggle to remember their Juggalo-centric lyrics and did little more than just stand there and recite them into the microphone. They also had some song about "the dark side of 615" which pretty much painted Juggalos as gang members, which I really wasn't fond of. But whatever.
And she's totally not feeling Lords of Chaos either
Bones made another appearance and introduced a guy named FLOW who he said was new to their record label (it was news to me that AMB have their own record label now, but hey, I must not keep up with them well enough hahaha). FLOW was entertaining, though not because he was particularly good. He was all smiles the whole way through his set, and didn't seem to be rapping about anything too serious.
Tank Top had to resort to playing with her phone since she was so bored with FLOW's performance
By this point, given that neither Lords of Chaos nor FLOW were particularly good, the venue had almost completely emptied out. Too bad that the two best performers went first, since the next two acts completely sucked the life out of the venue. S.G.F. and P.R.E.A.C.H. definitely should have played just before ABK.
By the time that it was actually time for ABK to take the stage, people were slowly filtering back in, and chants of "ABK!" and "Fam-uh-ly" were starting to fill the room. Since this show was technically a part of the Medicine Bag tour (just like the last one was), I was expecting the backdrop to be the same Medicine Bag backdrop as last time. But instead, when they dropped the tarp, there were two large hatchetman banners on the sides, with some sort of tall riser in the middle that he was standing on, which was a much grander entrance that just walking out on stage!
Pamela with ABK in the background
Tank Top was actually enjoying this performance! I think she was even taking a photo with the phone and not playing with it.
Much like last time, the performance was great. He moved around the stage a lot, and made prolonged eye contact with lots of people numerous times throughout the set. At one point during "Ghost of my Ex," he stared me down and reached out his hand toward me. But dammit if I didn't have a dude standing right in front of me, and I couldn't reach back far enough to grab his hand haha Overall, again, another solid performance. Better than last time in my opinion since he seemed a little more energetic and was having a little more fun with it.
After the show, everyone made their way outside and hung around for a while. I'd met new friend Dennis "Lazy D" before the show, and he'd invited me and Pamela upstairs to the Undertones bar because he anticipated that ABK would head up there for a few drinks later. I'm certainly not one to pass up the opportunity to meet a celebrity, so after a while, we all headed upstairs. After a good 45 minutes of hanging around with no sign of ABK, Pamela and I decided to go downstairs just to make sure that his trailer was still parked beside the club, and that he hadn't slipped away unnoticed! It was still there, and after chatting with a security guard about how much we both loved Boondox, ABK came our way. We gave him a quick whoop whoop and he headed upstairs, with me and Pamela following behind. He ended up being such a Joe Average cool dude to hang out with...didn't draw attention to himself or act outrageous like you hear some musicians doing!
Yep, that's what ABK looks like without his paint!
Once ABK and almost everyone else snuck off to the back room for a while, Pamela and I stayed to chat with Dennis, who ended up being such an interesting guy! Everyone else came back into the main area of the bar at some point, and as it approached 3:00am, the subject of the Gummi Bears theme song came up. So eventually, we all ended up watching cartoon theme songs on YouTube over the big screen TV in the bar! Epic...totally epic hahaha
I've said it before and I'll say it again, that I am so glad that I chose to embrace this whole genre of music. The music is great, the concerts are awesome, and the other fans are so, so fun! Now all I need is for Boondox to come to the Muse and I'll have seen everyone on the label :-)
-Julie
