Goldrush!

This past Sunday I went to the MySpace Goldrush show @ House of Blues. Santogold was the headlining act and let me tell you, that chick puts on one holy badass of a live show. The opening acts were Low Vs. Diamond, Plastic Little and Mates of State. I'd never heard of any of them prior to Sunday, but by the end of the night I was a newly recruited fan of Low Vs. Diamond and Mates of State. Plastic Little was just...yeah. They were extra random and not very good, so they messed up the vibe for a minute. They were backed by DJ Siyoung who was nice with the turntablism and a foxy mofo to boot even though he was small and elfish. I'm sorry - I'm just a sucker for azn boyz who genuinely embrace the elements of hip hop - don't hate!

Anyway, I managed to smuggle my digital camera into the venue so I could get some clear shots of Santogold in all of her wondrously tacky early-90s regalia. House of Blues doesn't play when it comes to cameras - if they find one on you when you go through security, they send you to the gift shop where they hold it and then charge you $5 to get it back after the show. I thought I'd beat the system when I managed to get past security with my camera, but the personnel they had posted by the exits were in straight hater mode for the night: they would actually come through the crowd to try and debo your camera if they caught you trying to snap a flick. I guess because the crowd wasn't dense, they could actually pay attention to what people were doing - because when I saw Nas with Kweli as his opening act on Aug. 31, it was packed. I saw mad cameras in the crowd and almost everybody around me was smoking weed - security was just trying to maintain and make sure nobody got crushed in the mass. I had to take pics with my BlackBerry and they were alright but I was determined to get my camera into the next show I attended @ H.O.B - and the night I do manage to sneak my camera in, security is being a bunch of assholes. Ironyyyyyy...

So yeah, here are my crappy BlackBerry pics from the show:

Low Vs. Diamond went first and got the crowd warmed up

Anthony Polcino, lead guitarist

DJ Siyoung getting it started for Little Plastic

Two of the 3 members of Little Plastic
Dude in the wool shawl was buggin' me out

Mates of State - they're husband and wife
Like a way cooler Captain & Tenille

Kori Gardner from Mates of State
She sings lead vocals, plays Electone and Hammond B-3 electric organs,
Casio synthesizer, and Rhodes electric piano, piano, and occasionally guitar
She was working those keyboards and synths that night

Santogold's DJ - dude was SICK
Too bad I can't remember his name :(

The Dancers
I initially called them Thing 1 & Thing 2
Shorty on the left was GETTIN' it the entire show
The other girl...not so much
Step your game up booboo!

Santogold was gettin' it too
I should have known she could dance
Don't let her demure demeanor in the videos fool you!

This is how the pics looked when she came
over on our side of the stage
The light was coming down at just the right angle
to eff up every shot I tried to take

I like to call this one "Lights Out"
I'm so clever

She did "Creator" towards the end of the show
She let a bunch of people come up on stage
and dance while she performed

I stood for 3 hours straight in 2-week old Chucks that still aren't broken in, so my feet were not happy with me when the show finally let out. I didn't care - I had a great time and I'd do it again if it meant I could recapture the awesome energy and the essence of that night.