3.29.2010 - Bone Thugs N Harmony
April 13, 2010
The Vogue
Indianapolis, IN
Ok, I'll admit - buying tickets to this show was more than a bit of a crapshoot. I loved Bone Thugs N Harmony's debut album, E 1999 Eternal. Granted, I was a very different person at the time with different musical tastes. But I thought the album had great rhythms and at least semi-intelligent lyrics. So I was a bit excited to see what Bone Thugs had been up to since then, and hear them perform some of these 'classics' live.
All goes smoothly at first - we arrive at The Vogue, probably the 4th group of people in line and the show is sold out. I think to myself "That must be a good sign, people appreciate the music these guys have been putting out over the last 10+ years." I will admit, I was a little worried when I noticed that most of the people in line seemed to be people around our age, which made me think that everyone else there had stopped following their career circa 1999, and showed up in hopes of hearing them do "Crossroads" in person. Doors open right on time, and aside from the metal detectors and bag search, entry goes according to plan and we score great seats in the balcony.
Around 8:00, DJ Indiana Jones comes out on stage and starts "spinning". (Here's where I'll show my lack of hip hop cred, I hope I'm using the correct lingo). He plays a lot of new stuff that I haven't heard, but the audience sings along every once in a while and seems mildly entertained. Every once in a while, he throws in an "old school" song, ala DMX, that I actually know the words to. All-in-all, the crowd is very disengaged at this point.
A little while later, a bunch of guys walk out on stage. I'm used to there being one, maybe two opening acts, so I'm expecting Bone Thugs in no time. These 7 or 8 guys rap for a while, it's pretty tolerable actually. One guy, who we discover at a later concert is Rusty of The Mudkids, a local hip hop group, gets the audience a bit more involved and even does some crowd surfing and singing from the floor. Then Tornado Alley takes the stage. If I remember correctly, this group consists of two guys, and we actually enjoyed their music too, aside from being a bit puzzled about a song regarding sandwiches. But that's besides the point...
Then, a woman referred to only as "Nana" takes the stage, along with 5 backup dancers, who appear to be teenagers. Maybe they were all teenagers. She's a pretty decent rapper (maybe rapper isn't the appropriate term, but it's what I know, so I'll stick with it), though the show seems to have jumped the track at this point. I think some more hip hop artists come on stage after this, and then we are back to DJ Indiana Jones.
We wait...and we wait...and we wait. Bone Thugs were supposed to be on at 9:30. It's now pushing 10:15 and no sign of them. Finally word gets out that they are most likely in the building. Then we see the bottle of Maker's Mark cross the floor, and the stage, only to probably be handed to Bone Thugs backstage. Uh oh - does that mean they are going to partake of all of this alcohol before they take the stage? This is a Monday night show - plenty of these people have to be at work bright and early on Tuesday morning...
So we wait a little longer. We start setting time limits..."If they aren't on stage by 10:30, we're leaving", "If they aren't on by 11, we're definitely outta here". So it's 11:00. Little did we know, Bone also brought some opening acts...
I can't claim to know the names of these guys, but they rap about the stereotypical things - money, people being shot, the gangsta lifestyle, etc. It's after 11:15 when we leave, still no Bone Thugs.
So quite a disappointing evening. Here are some noteworthy items:
- It's good to know that sagging your pants is still in style in the hip hop community, even though baggy pants have been traded in for skinny jeans to keep up with the times
- Rappers have big posse's who hang out just backstage, sometimes spilling onstage. Some of them even travel around the stage videotaping every portion of their show.
- Don't even bother trying to tell a crowd at a hip-hop show in a bar that this is a non-smoking show. Your efforts to stop them will prove to be futile.
- Rappers may claim that they get a bad 'rap' (no pun intended), but if this show was any indication of the norm, they perpetuate their own stereotypes.
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