Live in Los Angeles:
RUN THE JEWELS
Wednesday, February 2, 2017
The Shrine Expo Hall
Los Angeles, CA
Words (and a couple shitty pictures like the one right above)
by Dan Sinclair
The much better, promotional photos are courtesy of Biz3
FEBRUARY 2, 2017: Your mission, if you chose to accept it is to leave your pregnant girlfriend alone sick in bed, beat traffic all the way to USC's downtown campus on a Wednesday night. Once there, proceed to the Shrine Expo Hall and witness the performance of Run the Jewels.
Mission fucking accepted. The sold-out show sure brought out all types tonight, and all those types are now directly heading to the lone parking garage next to the Shrine. I look around for street parking-- none. Shit. Ooh, what's this? A small parking lot adjacent to the traffic for $20. Sold. And just in time to catch the end of The Gaslamp Killer's set. Haven't seen him since he opened up for Deltron 3030 at the Fonda. Do any of you remember that? Hanging up high above him is the RTJ symbol...
...which most of the crowd imitates as El-P and Killer Mike take stage as Queen's "We Are the Champions" plays. This quickly changes into "Talk to Me," and everyone goes fucking nuts. With very little ado in-between, the alternative hip-hop duo follows this with "Legend Has It," which quickly becomes "Ticketron." All three are off the new album Run the Jewels 3-- yes, the very same one this tour is in support of.
But they go down one to Run the Jewels 2 for the next little ditty known as "Blockbuster Night, Part 1." What are they doing, counting down to fu... No, no, I'm getting ahead of myself. RTJ stays with number two as they go into "Oh My Darling Don't Cry," and oh, my, it's hard to spot someone who isn't dancing back and forth and rapping along to every song-- oh, well, there's that guy back by the bathroom who seems to be too drunk to stand. But he's got a big smile on his face, so he's clearly having a good time, too. Next up is the DJ Shadow track "Nobody Speak..."
Shortly thereafter, El-P yells out "Hey..." and everyone yells back "Hey!" before he can continue. He laughs and apologies, claiming there was more to what he needs to say aside from the word "hey." He again yells "Hey" again and the crowd yells "Hey!" back again. This goes on for a few more times, much to El-P's frustration. "We're gonna end up doing this all fucking night." He eventually is able to get out the other "hey" and a "kids" out to finish the intro to "Hey Kids (Bumaye)." After he does his verse and Killer Mike does his, they are joined on stage by the night's very first special guest Detroit's own Danny Brown to finish the track!
Run the Jewels doesn't say a whole lot in-between songs aside from thanking the shit out of the fans. Well, aside from the part where El-P read some of his poetry. He was actually nervous to do so, but got it out and the crowd loved it. I didn't write down the words, so you'll have to look it up yourself, but I will tell you if you like RTJ lyrics, you'll probably be down with El-P's poetry and that's word. Next up is more RTJ3 with "Stay Gold" followed by "Don't Get Captured" followed by "Panther Like a Panther" because I'm the shit, bitch!
Then it's the next guest of the night as Gangsta Boo comes out to help with "Love Again (Akinyele Back)." Then it's time for "Lie Cheat Steal" because everybody's doing it, which is followed by "Early." Blink 182/Transplants/Box Car Racer/Antemasque drummer Travis Barker comes out to whale on the drums for "All Due Respect." I think that was the part where my buddy EVZ went to get some more Coke to mix with the contents of his flask. He borrowed my note-taking pen to stir his concoction, so I apologize if my notebook got drunk and none of this shit makes sense.
That's about the time I see Brian Posehn (or some other giant human being) walking around. Did not know he was a hip-hop fan. I wonder if he went as crazy as everyone else when Run the Jewels did "Run the Jewels" off the album Run the Jewels. I bet he did. Then it's "A Report to the Shareholders," before Joi joins RTJ onstage to close out the set with "Down."
But the intermission to the encore doesn't last long at all, and before you know it, Killer Mike and El-P are right back out and bring none other than former Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha to close out the show with "Kill Your Master" and "Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)"
Here's a shitty pic to take you there...
Yes it was as awesome as you can imagine. Then I ran out the back to hurry to my $20 parking spot, just barely beating the traffic out of downtown LA and making it back to join my poor pregnant girlfriend in bed to once again thank her for putting up with me when I like to go run the jewels and stuff.
For more on RUN THE JEWELS, go here.