Lifesavas show!

The Lifesavas played a show at the Nightlight here in Bellingham on Friday, February 23rd. I must say that the Lifesavas might be my favorite Quannum Projects group to see live. Blackalicious, Pigeon John, and Lyrics Born all have crazy energy, but I think I connect the most with the Lifesavas performance style and lyrical themes.

Opening for the Lifesavas were two Seattle hip-hop legends! First was Universoul, the newest project taken on by the one and only E-Real, formerly of the foremost underground Seattle hip-hop crew, Black Anger. E-Real speaks from the perspective of the Black American Working-Class Male, and voices the frustration of a trapped proletariat. His presence was felt as soon as his lyrical viciousness started pumping out. As E-Real put it though, he is now 32 years old and feels that he should give up his street name and start to be known by his given name, Asim. So, call him Asim.
After Asim got things started off right, the one and only Boom Bap Project took the stage, 2 MC's and 1 DJ, my favorite hip-hop formula. Three fellas who I always thought were black turned out to be everything but. So that was weird. Boom Bap kicked some crazy rhyme patterns (though mostly not understandable at first listen), and had really strong presence. Destro would fly all over the stage and get in people's faces, while Karim would just flow crazy and wave his big belly around. A lot of fun. I picked up their album Reprogram at the show, to accompany their first LP, Circumstance Dictates.

Finally the Lifesavas took the stage. I had seen them once before, at the legendary 4/20 show at the Showbox last Spring (w/PJ, Fatlip, & Blackalicious w/Lateef), and was blown away by them then. The Lifesavas weren't even on tour this time--Vursatyl & DJ Rev. Shynes came up from Portland, and Jumbo (the Garbageman) flew in from the Bay area just to play this one show. I actually ran in to them a couple hours before the show in Fred Meyer and well, that just made me excited.
They kicked off the show with a couple familiar songs from their album Spirit in Stone, and then went right in to songs off their brand-new album "Gutterfly," due out April 24th. I must say that their new music sounds Incredible--they are definitely creating more complete tracks since their debut. Vursatyl is what his name says he is: a very, very versatile MC. He has an infinite number of rhyme patterns, and he can use them to say anything he chooses. He possesses of my favorite MC qualities: in just 2 bars, he can make you want to laugh, cry, change, and dance, all at once. He is a real big guy and holds his presence hard. Jumbo is both an MC and a producer, and you can tell that he knows the structure of his music and sticks to it hard. His rhyme styles are more structured than Vursatyl's, but less creative. Nonetheless, he still speaks a lot of truth in every line. Jumbo's presence is probably what captivates me to the Lifesavas' shows the most. You can tell he has so much respect for hip-hop music, and couldn't live any other life than the one he's living now. Vursatyl's love for hip-hop is also blatant, and seeing that in them is inspiring.
After some old songs, some new songs, and some crazy songs, they finally talked a bit about their stances politically regarding the Iraq war. They have family there and are told that the U.S. presence there is unnecessary and disruptive, and that we need to pull out as soon as possible. That garnered much cheering and led smoothly in to what is probably my favorite song of theirs, "Resist." ("Take a risk! Raise your fist!") They ended the show with basically that and a little live thing they do to show off their DJ, Rev. Shynes. They killed the show and bounced out right after.

If you are looking around at hip-hop that is real, and is searching for truth, the Lifesavas are it. The Portland trio is a lyrically (and sonically) gifted crew with crazy energy and can bless the stage with the best of them. Check 'em out.