Summer Soltice Season Reprise: Pitbull Show Recap

Is it June, I mean July 19th already? I have gotten the most out of the summer outdoor (and indoor) concert / fest season while it has lasted. I was not going to post this a month later but I am anyway. It's worth sharing. I think I am still recovering from the damn Pitbull show, and I think his web managers are too. They have only posted one story since the show at Summerfest on June 28th. The show in Milwaukee was extra live, and I have seen a lot of shows in my day. Here's the recap...


Pitbull barks hard and bites harder

If it wasn't obvious what the Pitbull show was all about, something is very wrong with your cognition of body language. I was packed in tighter where I was standing than the cornucopia of glutes on stage that were stuffed into spandex thong singlets and sequined Carnaval showgirl costumes. I'll give you a hint, at fifteen rows back and ten feet off of the seating area, I could barely see the top of Pitbull's shaved dome. Did it really matter?

A true testament to a music artist’s pull is the turnout they draw on an off-night like Monday. Seriously, any day, any time, except Sunday morning, Mr. 305 could have shut the Brew down. 3/5 parts honeymoon for his latest album Rebelution, 1/5 part ode to his fans, 1/5 part charging the air with lust because he can, Pitbull early on broke into Triumph, a single-worthy anthem from his newest joint. Fans were feeling it, but they responded most to the hard tracks like Calle Ocho, Hotel Room Service and WATAGATAPITUSBERRY.

While people were loosing their minds jumping up to the song KRAZY, bouncing, popping, shaking, and thrusting without millimeters separating appendages and supplely cleaved muscle groups, Pitbull was saturating his marquee skinny tuxedo, the first of which was some kind of blackish-purple, which quickly liquefied into deep violet from repeated end-to-end gallops of the stage, weaving between booty dancers and hype-men alike that were donning head dresses of mohawked multi-colored feathers; some standing on hydraulic stilts giving them the Jar Jar Binks gait.

A set break ensued. At the crowd’s impatient beckoning, in the nick of time, Pitbull emerged through the stage lighting, starting this round in a perfectly good white tux before spitting classic cuts like Go Girl, Mentirosa, and neos like Shut It Down. Mr. 305 had intentions of mongering perspiration like that Axe commercial, as he gyrated dangerously parallel to the stage apron, caring little for the condition of his ankles, Achilles tendons or cumber bun.

Without warning there was a planned power outage, and Pitbull disappeared, only to come back on cue with the rest of his entertainment squad. What happened next can only be described as utterly ridiculous. Pitbull unleashes a cover of the LMFAO ditty Shots, and the secret to world peace is revealed, as every person in sight went absolutely AWOL, jumping in unison like newly freed South Africans.

The show mercifully ended, no one could even scream for another encore. Groups and solo exhibitionists all-the-way to the main promenade, with bloodthirsty gazes, refused to stop dancing: swaying their hips, hands waving and mouths screeching. Last I looked, from the back of the Harley area, the front areas of the stands(it had become an entity unto itself) still overflowing unfurled a Mexican flag, stubbornly cheered and pulsated in the glare of the illuminating flood lights. For all I know the party is still going on. Even Pitbull had to admit Milwaukee is KRAZY. Dale!

Really? Brew - Tang Clan

Wu - Tang Clan karaoke y'all. This past Saturday night at this spot called the Highbury in Bay View these local Milwaukee Hip - Hop heathens, using the moniker Brew - Tang Clan, played the Wu- Tang instrumentals for eager Wu - Imposters to bring the vocals to. One catch separated the real from the faulty... no lyrics on teleprompters. It was a nice touch for weeding out johnny come new Wu - enthusiasts.

Mostly ODB verses were recited... Shimmy Shimmy Ya and the Wu Forever track where ODB is screaming about sh*tting on lawns and rap souffle where requested. There was a notable rendition of the Raekwon overclassic Knuckleheadz that reminded that when you listen to that album you become invincible.

I was harassing the host to get the Liquid Swords track Duel of the Iron Mic and he came through. The DJ had to dig through the internet for that beat. I had to take my turn ripping a track. I only had the first verse down but people were definitely feeling it like the track just came out. Just goes to show some classic take time to mature. The host Dana Coppafeel actually turned out to be pretty cool. He's got his own music out and its worth of listen if your into indy Hip - Hop.

Next time it goes down I'm going to have an arsenal ready.

Airing It Out!!!

I never imagined how much fun I would have partaking in the spectacle that someone else's dream built... but I did. The US Air Guitar Championships tour made an emergency stop in Milwaukee, between jaunts to Cleveland and Minneapolis. This is serious business and the faithful die hard. Luckily the Milwaukee stop was just an exhibition thus allowing me to mime a rendition of Devo's Whip It with a couple friends (aptly dubbed the Furious Danger Purple Kangaroo Band).

Mid riff, I dashed into the crowd and managed to free a lamp shade from a rather curvy lamp, before knocking the lamp part to the floor. The prop increased the Devo affect 15 fold...

This type of outing was definitely worth the time on a Friday night. In addition to the comedy that is air guitar, I also worked myself out of breath on the air drums, as well as, the air bass and guitar. The cardio-vascular aspect relieved any guilt I did not have post performance. Bonus!!!

So I guess these two guys just started doing this one day... one is named Hot Nix Hulahan (while at the karaoke console, he personally gave me the nod of approval for the lamp shade stunt) and the other Bjorn Turoque. Thank you for bringing novelty to an participatory entertainment form that had lost its novelty. If only I remembered my camera!

I definitely plan to check out the movie. So many nations with in a nation! The US Air Guitar website has a schedule on the main page... so it may be in your town soon!

End the Weekend

There is a new comedy showcase in Milwaukee called Funny First Sundays, uh, at Comedy Sportz on 1st Street right south of downtown. You get a little taste of BET Comic View because its hosted by Damon Williams. What? You're supposed to know him. No not Damon Wayans, Williams. Okay lets be serious, you get a little taste of Comic View in Milwaukee. That means they could have used the pudgy referee with the glasses in real life. The funny part was that the first thing Williams said was, "I heard about y'all [in Milwaukee]." The show couldn't even get started before some fool, in the very first row cackling at himself, is yelling 'tomatoes' at a poet who was introducing the event with too many bitter rhythmic words about some pretty light-skinned girl he doesn't think is pretty since she was unreceptive to his advances, or should I say what she thought were his advances.

If you didn't figure it out by now, Blacks now have a reason to be late on Monday mornings, that's if you are working anyway. Straying from its improv roots, Comedy Sportz better retain some security and metal detectors. You got audience members that try to upstage the show by yelling slick comments like they're in MPS again and get mad when the comedian starts roasting phantom hecklers they can't see through the spotlights. That's the best part though, everyone in the room is fair game, even one of the servers got caught "looking like Jack Black". You might get lit-up for just getting up to go to the restroom with the wrong walk or too big of a booty, or especially if you are a raffle winner who has the nerve to come out the house and get on stage with a wrinkled shirt. It went something like this. Between acts Williams goes "...Congratulations man, you won a cd. You got a choice of India Arie, India Arie, ah India Arie. Oh, yeah that's right she got a new album coming out. That's the one you want?... okay good choice Chris, give it up for Chris y'all," (Chris steps of the stage, Williams under his breath) "Man, if you going to use the iron at least turn it on." Aaah, got him! You might even get a glimpse of a couple of, we'll just say, ladies wearing butt length silk napkins. Funny First Sundays is a good way to celebrate the end of the Sunday sabbath. You get to people watch, hear professional laugh artists and get a few chuckles off of both.

Wondering about the 'Aahk' in the title (oh yeah, I changed the title)? Williams let us know that is the sound you get when you do something in bed with your boo that she's not comfortable with (or to refer to you if you're that kind of dude). Funny First Sundays is First Sundays until you see different at 10 o'clock sharp on channel 6 news. I forgot to mention the comedy starts on the flier with 'show starts promptly at 9pm'. If you have 10 bucks and a little tolerance for a dab of tactlessness its worth checking out once.