10.10-10.15 Mt. Pleasant, ATL, Houston, ATX, Denton...
The days begin to cascade and there's no way to stay above the fray. It's becoming harder and harder to keep up with all of the whirlwind craziness of this tour but I'm going to try.
This entry begins in Mt. Pleasant, SC where an unexpected (and unsuspecting) crowd were treated to One-Self, Mr. Invisible and Soul Rebel at the Village Tavern. The night began with a trivia contest, and the People's Elbow (aka Mr. Invisible plus BluRum13, an unstoppable intellectual powerhouse) narrowly lost the contest to a local defending champion. Here's a group photo of the mental giants.
From left to right: ill-use, Aswell, BluRum13 and Jason. Jason, notably, is the only one without a rapper name in this photo. J-Swan? We stayed that night at Curfew's place, nestled in the backwoods of SC. Here's a picture of his place, if only because I like the photo.
Our next show took us to Hotlanta (ATL shawty!) where we rocked the Drunken Unicorn along with Psyche Origami (big shoutout on behalf of the rest of our tour) who ripped for an animated and dedicated local following. Somehow the only picture I took the entire time we were in Atlanta was of my friend Sara, who hosted a dinner party (which we happily crashed) and put me up for the night.
We had a day off between Atlanta and Houston; we stayed in a hotel right outside of Mobile, Alabama to split the 12-hour difference. A long drive for four guys with nothing to think about except hip-hop and... food.
This next picture needs no caption except: "Flying-J Travel Stop, Alabama."
The drive to Houston took right above New Orleans, and we meditated on the Katrina tragedy for a good bit of time on the road. We're not really sure why Mapquest elected to take us ABOVE NoLa rather than through it, if it was by convention or by design, but our time and scheduling didn't allow for us to see the city.
The venue in Houston was called The Mink, and it was situated above a restaurant and bar. When we got there were totally exhausted from the drive but we tried our best to rock it.
Houston locals most definitely repped their set - peace to Brainchild and the rest of the b-boys that showed out to support the scene. We also need to shout out Daniel C., who put the four of us up for the night in his apartment.
Now it's on to Austin (ATX) and Emo's Jr. What can I say? Austin is crazy. In the best possible way. We saw it all. I'm not afraid to say it was One Self's best reception thus far, and they put their fists up for Mr. Invisible even though they had never seen us before.
One Self ripped in front of a crowd that was very, very eager to see them. The streets of Austin post-show were just as interesting as what had happened inside... we saw it all. Ice grills, all manner of tricked-out trucks, soundsystems, ground-effects, lifts, lowering, screwed-and-chopped everything, empty NyQuil bottles, and many, many U of T kids. A big shout is in order for Rodrigo, who let us four Mr. I guys crash at his apartment right off of the U of Texas campus. "What would you do..."
We left Austin around 3 today after doing a much-needed load of laundry. Here is an amazing video of ill-use and Aswell at a Dairy Queen somewhere in Texas. The floors were slick, and I couldn't resist documenting the event.
Tonight's show, which is about an hour away, is here in Denton, TX (near Dallas, I understand) at this beautiful venue called Hailey's. Nice and open, gorgeous lighting, and a rather amazing selection of beers on tap. We hope this is one of the good ones; we're kind of on a roll. OK, peace until later, and stay tuned!
This entry begins in Mt. Pleasant, SC where an unexpected (and unsuspecting) crowd were treated to One-Self, Mr. Invisible and Soul Rebel at the Village Tavern. The night began with a trivia contest, and the People's Elbow (aka Mr. Invisible plus BluRum13, an unstoppable intellectual powerhouse) narrowly lost the contest to a local defending champion. Here's a group photo of the mental giants.
From left to right: ill-use, Aswell, BluRum13 and Jason. Jason, notably, is the only one without a rapper name in this photo. J-Swan? We stayed that night at Curfew's place, nestled in the backwoods of SC. Here's a picture of his place, if only because I like the photo.
Our next show took us to Hotlanta (ATL shawty!) where we rocked the Drunken Unicorn along with Psyche Origami (big shoutout on behalf of the rest of our tour) who ripped for an animated and dedicated local following. Somehow the only picture I took the entire time we were in Atlanta was of my friend Sara, who hosted a dinner party (which we happily crashed) and put me up for the night.
We had a day off between Atlanta and Houston; we stayed in a hotel right outside of Mobile, Alabama to split the 12-hour difference. A long drive for four guys with nothing to think about except hip-hop and... food.
This next picture needs no caption except: "Flying-J Travel Stop, Alabama."
The drive to Houston took right above New Orleans, and we meditated on the Katrina tragedy for a good bit of time on the road. We're not really sure why Mapquest elected to take us ABOVE NoLa rather than through it, if it was by convention or by design, but our time and scheduling didn't allow for us to see the city.
The venue in Houston was called The Mink, and it was situated above a restaurant and bar. When we got there were totally exhausted from the drive but we tried our best to rock it.
Houston locals most definitely repped their set - peace to Brainchild and the rest of the b-boys that showed out to support the scene. We also need to shout out Daniel C., who put the four of us up for the night in his apartment.
Now it's on to Austin (ATX) and Emo's Jr. What can I say? Austin is crazy. In the best possible way. We saw it all. I'm not afraid to say it was One Self's best reception thus far, and they put their fists up for Mr. Invisible even though they had never seen us before.
One Self ripped in front of a crowd that was very, very eager to see them. The streets of Austin post-show were just as interesting as what had happened inside... we saw it all. Ice grills, all manner of tricked-out trucks, soundsystems, ground-effects, lifts, lowering, screwed-and-chopped everything, empty NyQuil bottles, and many, many U of T kids. A big shout is in order for Rodrigo, who let us four Mr. I guys crash at his apartment right off of the U of Texas campus. "What would you do..."
We left Austin around 3 today after doing a much-needed load of laundry. Here is an amazing video of ill-use and Aswell at a Dairy Queen somewhere in Texas. The floors were slick, and I couldn't resist documenting the event.
Tonight's show, which is about an hour away, is here in Denton, TX (near Dallas, I understand) at this beautiful venue called Hailey's. Nice and open, gorgeous lighting, and a rather amazing selection of beers on tap. We hope this is one of the good ones; we're kind of on a roll. OK, peace until later, and stay tuned!