A dark and rainy day in the District of Columbia couldn’t have been anymore appropriate for the day the Depart From Me Tour hit the city. Personal, intense and at times a bit morbid, underground rapper Chris Palko, who you might know as Cage, played to a sold out crowd in the tiny dive bar known as DC 9, with help from Weathermen bud Yak Ballz and local hip-hop group Educated Consumers.
Doors opened at 8:30pm, I arrived to the bar from Baltimore at 9:00pm, however because this was Washington DC the parking was a fucking nightmare. After taking in deep consideration about letting some homeless man “watch” my car for 10 bucks, I decided on parking it in some alley behind DC’s 9:30 Club, which was probably illegal, but to my defense I had been driving around in circles for about 40 minutes.
Once inside DC 9 I could tell this would an interesting show. The venue itself seems to be an old city row home which had been converted into a bar. The show was on the second floor which was basically a small room with no stage, one bar, and a few places to sit scattered around. Going into this I was expecting to see an audience of angsty white guys ranging from the ages of 18-25, kinda like what you’d expect from an Atmosphere show (minus all the Slug groupies). However I was pleasantly surprised to see a very mixed crowd of young adults and “social outcasts”.
I missed the Educated Consumers due to parking drama, but I was able to catch Yak Ballz’ set. Yak was fantastic. This was my second time seeing him perform, and I don’t know if it was the “intimacy” of the crowd or perhaps his new Latin lover (but really Persian lover) look, which was of big discussion amongst the crowd, but this time around his performance was fun at a high intensity and he had the whole crowd by the balls, even me & I have girl parts! Yak also brought rapper Timmy Wiggins up on stage with him at one point during his set which was a treat. At the end of his set he played an old Weathermen joint and all the die hard fans in the building went ape shit, throwing up Cardboard City signs all over the place. Like I said before, DC 9 doesn’t really have a stage so fittingly enough it doesn’t have a backstage either. Once Yak was done with his set he graciously walked through the crowd shaking the hands of fans he passed.
Cage seemed to walk through the crowd unnoticed. However, once he was on stage everyone in the place did the typical crowding for the headliner and cheering. Cage also seems to have somewhat of the “bad-boy heartthrob” effect. I mean the place was a total sausage fest before dude was on stage, and then once he did drunk girls starting popping up everywhere. Cage was dressed in all black and seemed a bit indifferent toward the crowd. After some sound problems and Cage ordering drinks from stage, the show began with strobe lights and the song “Nothing Left To Say” from his newest album Depart From Me. Point blank Cage’s performance was simply amazing. He did an excellent job of incorporating an array of his music from his older stuff to new songs from DFM. He also had a mini tribute to the late Camu Tao which I really enjoyed as did the audience.
But what really stole the show was his snarky sarcasm and particularly dry sense of humor. Before Cage got into the song, “The Subtle Art of the Breakup”, in which a guy kills his girlfriend in a car accident on her birthday, he asked the crowd if it was anyone’s birthday. Of course many people screamed as if he might sing happy birthday to them, but instead he says, “Stop celebrating your birthdays. It’s really narcissistic of you, and nobody gives a fuck except for you and your mom.” He also asked the crowd if anyone had met the love of their life that night as well. After a mixed reaction from the audience Cage says that he hadn’t met the love of his life that night either, then some girl shouts out, “You didn’t look over here!” Cage looks to the girl and says, “Oh I looked over there.” And the whole crowd does one of those Ohhs ’cause clearly the poor girl got shit on, but no big deal or anything, all in good fun.
But what seems to be the most talked about interaction between Cage and the audience (Via Twitter) was the almost physical altercation between Cage and an audience member. Right after Cage performs “Ballad of Worms”, in which the crowd sung along to harmoniously, some guy from the crowd yells out something hardly audible and Cage responds by basically saying what a bitch move it is to yell out things from the crowd anonymously. This guy trips out and acts as if that was the ultimate disrespect. The guy then walks up and gets into Cage’s face. Although it was mostly super awkward to watch, what I felt was the most entertaining part is how the entire time this guy is trying to prove to the audience that his balls had dropped, Cage calmly stands there talking into the mic making the guy seem like an even bigger asshole than previously conceived, which I didn’t think was possible! Finally bodyguards come and the guy obviously gets kicked out. As they’re doing this the guy gets a drink doused on him. Rumor has it, it was Yak Ballz who threw the drink but I ain’t a snitch. Chauncey, the DJ (who you may know from XO Skeletons), was also a highlight of the night! He too had a lot of funny things to say and the interactions between him and Cage were entertaining to witness.
Cage did an encore performance, which I suspected he would because it was the end of the show and he still hadn’t played his single “I Never Knew You”. Fakin’. He came back and played, the crowd was very much into it and you could tell his actual departure from stage seemed somewhat of a sweet sorrow for the rapper’s adoring fans. After the show I left immediately in fear my whip got towed, but I heard there was a meet-n-greet for 20 bucks…
Overall the DFM tour is a good show to see. Both Yak Ballz and Cage did the damn thing as well as the accompanying parties (Chauncey & F. Sean). I’m not too sure what the other venues they play are like, but this show was like being at a basement party with good music, drinking, and occasional shit talking (mostly on Cage’s part, huge shit talker, but in a funny way that most people will like…unless it’s about you and/or you have no sense of humor. :/ ) Nonetheless, fans of Cage, Yak Ballz and that whole CC family are sure to enjoy it.
Loading ...
Leave A Comment!