Flying Spiders, Bad Penmanship, and Astronautalis on Sunday, October 10th at the A Club
There has been a lot of hype about Som’s new project “Flying Spiders,” we were excited to hear and see the world première of their organic hip hop on 10-10-10. Freshly picked from Spokane our minds and ears were handed a group of musicians that were lead by Som rapping; together creating a full musical experience. Something we haven’t seen or heard of before in the area. It was cool to see a full band doing hip hop because when there is an entire band on stage there is a lot more to watch; you can see the chemistry and rhythm come together with the lyrics of the rap. It’s musically “the big picture.” Why not have a full band?! It was killer. This is the new exciting fresh thing that Spokane needs in our scene.
Flying Spiders consisted of Isamu Jordan, Vinnie Nickeloff, Rajah Bose, Armando Arguello, Pete Johnson, Jamal Ali, Thuy Dzuong-Nguyen, Sparky, and Eddie Taylor III. Some songs featured half of the crew, other times everyone was on stage. A lot of these cats are in other bands as well, like Groove Patrol & Son Dulce. By far a very large group of talented musicians that served us up six songs, then a final song with the Bad Penmanship Crew. It was very entertaining and it sounded great especially for only a few practices. I was telling Som after their set, please don’t let this be the only time we see Flying Spiders. His response; only, this is the first time you have seen Flying Spiders. Looks like we will be seeing more from this organic hip hop super group known as “Flying Spiders.”
Bad Penmanship took over the stage next doing their thing; I realized these guys/gal are out a lot. This was the second time I have seen them within 10 days, which is good to see that there is more and more hip hop out in the scene. I am always blown away with their ability to just put word after word and flow so smoothly. It was also pretty awesome to see Som with Bad Penmanship up on stage having some fun. The two sets just mixed right into each other with just as much suave as their rhymes do. Quiz, Jaeda, and Freetime Synthetic never let us down, they always put on a killer set.
Last but not least was Seattle’s Astronautalis. One man, one Mac. Astronautalis has some serious energy. During each song he wasn’t just standing there rapping or moving around the stage he was almost convulsing and shaking and screaming and really getting the point across. It was impossible to not pay attention, it was pretty fucking awesome. He almost acted while he was on stage rapping, which makes 100% sense because he has a degree in theater! It was funny to hear him say things like “that song was about dealing drugs in the 1800’s and this next song is about making out in a hurricane…” in between songs. He was really funny. He did tell us a true story though, about how his family started a couple 100 years ago in Scotland, the moral of his story was if you really love someone and they don’t love you back its totally okay to kidnap them. Astronautalis played us a bunch of songs, a long set, including a new one called “The Wood.” The highlight had to of been his freestyle though. He had kids in the crowd yell out subjects for him to freestyle about. For some reason the words yelled were like Barter Fair, Henry the 14th, Disco, and what not. But words aside, he nailed it and added them all in into a freestyle over the music of Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson.” It was nuts and splendid! I could tell that he was enjoying just as much as we were too, which is even better!
Overall hip hop is alive in Spokane and we’re stoked. You should be too. Keep your eye out for more from Flying Spiders and catch Bad Penmanship when you can, you won’t be disappointed.
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.