February 19, 2013 • A&R Music Bar, Columbus, Ohio
Yeah, yeah, concerts two days in a row. Not something I'm going to get into a habit of anytime soon, but this was easily an exception. It wasn't quite as good as Monday's show, and it wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped in general, but it was still a pretty good time.
Busdriver
I barely know anything about Busdriver, aside from that he's a very eclectic artist in the hip hop world, and that definitely proved true here. I was pretty impressed by his set: just two tiny samplers provided a large array of both minimalistic and very noisy beats. And he's quite the talented vocalist; his rasta-style singing was decent and he spits like no other—if I thought Aesop Rock was a fast rapper, Busdriver is some other league. The forty-five minute set got a bit taxing, and maybe even a bit repetitive, but it was by no means a bad show.
• Most Exquisite Haircuts Award
Aesop Rock / Rob Sonic
I didn't expect them to go on at the same time, but it made things move a bit faster so that was nice. I was unaware that they have a group now (with the DJ who backed them up, Big Wiz), so the setlist was a pretty even mix of Aesop Rock's material, Rob Sonic's, and the group's (Hail Mary Mallon). Unfortunately this meant that I didn't even recognize half of the songs they did, which kind of undercut my enjoyment of the set a bit. Still, it was great to hear Aesop do some of the better Skelethon tracks and a few older ones as well, including some of my favorites like "None Shall Pass", "No Regrets", and "Pigs". The sound itself was horrible, though—you would be lucky to hear the beats aside from the super-heavy basswork, aside from DJ Big Wiz's (admittedly good) solo set. It made it hard to tell what they were even playing most of the time. Overall, though, the show was decent; not one of my favorites but it was still pretty fun.
• Best Use of Entertaining Backdrops Award
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