- Chuck D
"That's the reason London is my motherfucking second home."
- Flavor Flav
To: Matt G From: michael stephen fuchs Subject: Cold Lampin' with Flavor Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 02:06:37 PST I went and saw Public Enemy at the Forum last night. That might be 'nuff said. But I'll say a bit more: They are *amazing* performers - haven't lost a trick. Incredible show. Flav came out in full regalia (clock, pink sunglasses, do-rag, cocked hat); and Chuck was his usual revolutionary self, leading "Fuck Bush / Fuck Blair" chants and warning Britain against becoming the 51st state. Professor Griff was wearing a Che t-shirt - leading Chuck to discourse about the importance of hip-hop revolutionaries maintaining their intellectualism. I was literally 15 feet from Chuck and Flav. But not to forget the music - wow. Live guitar, live bass, live drums, an amazing DJ (not Terminator X, but some new guy). A lot of old favourites - Shut 'Em Down, Fight the Power, Can't Truss It, Rebel Without a Pause, even 911 is a Joke. Flav sat down at the drums and kicked a beat for awhile. Amazing DJ set break. I wish to God I had thought to put your number in my phone beforehand. I called Danielle and gave her a good dose of 911 is a Joke. m michael stephen fuchs msf@michaelfuchs.org www.michaelfuchs.org To: Danielle F From: michael stephen fuchs Subject: Re: Cold Lampin' with Flavor Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 07:38:43 PST Danielle Fwrote : > What was the london crowd like at a > public enemy show? White. But quite exuberant for all that. I was about in the fourth rank from the stage. It was very lively, but generally respectful, down there. (Aside from the endless f'ing photosnapping with phones and cameras. But I suppose that's epidemic everywhere now.) There was, though, one moment - right in the middle of Shut 'Em Down - when a couple of whiteboy wannabe-hardcore arseheads start slamdancing like, well, like slamdancing arseheads. I got knocked/retreated about 15 feet from where I'd started - plus I got a beer thrown in my face (literally). Luckily I had my Cross of St. George bandana to wipe myself off. After that, it was amusing: first the people around the white-boy arseheads made it pretty clear (judging my reading of lips and body language) that they were going to kill said white boys if they continued. Then this remarkably large, taciturn, black security guy (the adverb applies to all adjectives) waded out and made it unmistakeably clear that he had dibs on killing the whiteboys if they didn't check themselves (before HE wrecked them). Shortly after that - and I hate to accentuate the negative, because it was a very small part of the evening, but an interesting one as you shall see (and you did ask about the crowd) - I got hit by another flying beer from behind. I wiped off again. And shortly after that, a flying beer tagged - square in the chest - one of the PE security of the first world guys onstage! Wo-hoah! Chuck and Flav and Griff turned and immediately stopped the song. And they proceeded to just fucking LAY INTO whomever had thrown the beer. It was fantastic. First Chuck pointed out that the shit was dangerous, and no joke. He further expressed curiosity as to why someone who disliked them enough to hurl things at them was there in the first place. Beyond that, it was suggested that whoever had heart enough to throw this [holding beer] might additionally have the heart to come up on the stage and claim it. It was made clear that that person would be the unlucky recipient of one full minute of going round and round with Professor Griff - who did not at all look like the kind of person you'd want to go round and round with, even for a minute. Griff speculated that whoever had done it was probably now crawling around on hands and knees in the back of the crowd. Chuck suggested that if the malefactor wasn't willing to stand up and take credit, then someone around him surely knew who was responsible. He requested that those in the know would kindly either push the malefactor out the door in the back - or else push him up to the stage. And if the latter, Chuck opined, "that's his ass". Flav called the beer thrower a "punk-ass motherfucker". The crowd wildly cheered each excoriation. It was actually a really neat opportunity to hear the band members speak unscripted - and they were rather inspired! xxm