Wu-Tang Clan House of Blues Friday, January 13
Contrary to popular belief, a majority of Wu-Tang Clan crowded the House of Blues stage Friday night, opening with "Clan in da Front." While most rappers I review these days present their speech in fragments, groups like Wu-Tang Clan remind us how flow and lyricism can still complement each other. Their live flow ebbed a few times, with a couple of members just standing at the front, waiting to jump in on a punchline.
Method Man paused the set to rally the Mavericks, then panned the Cowboys' performance, which got a wave of boos and a drunk guy at the back yelling about it for a couple minutes afterward. Late into the set, the group dedicated "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" to Ol' Dirty Bastard, with Boy Jones appearing on stage. The group's reliable demographic of weed smokers sparked up.
The lack of newer tracks made the set feel more like we were in a time machine than witnessing a "rebirth," as the tour's title suggested. If you've seen Wu-Tang live in the last few years, you didn't miss anything new. As the most high-profile of the group, Method Man kept the crowd energized, ending the set by diving off the crowd's hands. Local hip-hop group Sore Losers opened with their new live-band setup, ending with the set with "Euthanasia," a track from next month's debut, We Are Sore Losers.
Check out the Wu-Tang slideshow here.
By the way: The no-shows included Ghostface Killah and, of course, ODB.
Random note: No matter how often I see it, white guys being the majority at a hip-hop concert will always weird me out.
