8/02/2009

Obey Experiment @ ICA Z-Trip, Chuck D., Shepard Fairey






The drive home from work on Friday evening sucked, clocking in at just a shade over 2 hours. That gave me about an hour and a half to turn it around and head back to Boston to the ICA for the 2nd try at the Obey Experiment. Shepard Fairey's show "Supply and Demand" is running for 2 more weeks at this point, thru Agust 16th. If you have not made it over there yet the show is not to be missed.

After going to the February gig that Shepard got arrested at I was asleep at the wheel for the makeup date and tickets were sold out by the time I came thru. Luckily the internet gods were smiling on me and I ended up with a sweet hookup! It actually ended up a joy having this event in July rather than February because the atmosphere on the deck out front on that water on a warm night protected from the drizzle by the structure of the ICA itself in a lounge type atmosphere couldn't be done in February! I think it was 12 degrees that night!

By the time I made my way down the the dancefloor Shepard was in full effect but before long Z-Trip took to the decks. He opened with The Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping Up To Boston" while layering and scratching news reports from the Gates incident over the track. "Police acting stupidly" The perfect homage to segue into after Shepard completed his set inside the building he was arrested in front of 4 short months ago.

From there it becomes a blur of my dancing legs and arms as I lose track of time and space and get absorbed by Z-Trip's beats for the next hour. It was as rocking and feel good set as you can have in a museum lobby. To close the night Public Enemy's Chuck D. took the stage and ripped thru a commanding 20 or so minutes backed by Z-Trip. Chuck D. looked in command and effortless on the mic on what so happened to be his 49th birthday.

All in all a great event and after going to the first one I was stoked that I was able to make it to the redux.

All photos courtesy of Ben Saren via Flickr.

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