Rock the Bells 2007, San Francisco

It's 3:12AM and my eyes are watering. Maybe from the Matanuska Mist, maybe from something else.

I'm here to write about a festival that happened last weekend, and it happened like this.

My last midterm was Thursday August 16, and I had in my possession three (3) tickets to see the Metal Faced villain, vaudeville's best, at the Independent club in San Francisco. It's not like I wasn't warned. I was with my buddy Tomer, who, with Pomeranz (another buddy we met at the show), had been successfully evaded by Slick Rick at least twice. So we weren't really shocked or pissed when we received word that the show was postponed due to illness.

This turned into a Zeitgeist night. Fastforward through a day in the city, half a rack of pool, a bill plus at Amoeba, and some clubbin' at the Mezzanine and we're caught up to the important shit.

I got to AT&T parck early (11:30) and hungover [enough to spell park with a c] and excited, despite hearing iffy things about the technical and hospitality crews in LA. I heard after the fact that San Francisco does the Warped Tour in the same parking lot every year, so they must be used to these large crowds. Maybe it was just that I sprung for the VIP ticket, but I was inside and watching Immortal Technique after not much time at all. The line looked long, but my friends who didn't spring were inside in no time.

He spit some sick flows and told everyone that they were more than welcome to steal his music, with the caveat that they bump that shit on the streets. Sounds like promos to me.

Next was the highlight of the day, Pharoahe Monch. I had seen the dude in the club the night before with Supernat, and he rocked Simon Says and whatever, but this was the main event. Live band. Two soul backing singers (man, woman). And the San Francisco clear sea breeze.

The group delivered most of Desire ("Agent Orange" but not "What It Is"...) then did a little tribute thing to all of the dead rappers (fallen soldiers), closing of course, with J Dilla.

Can you guess what happened next?

If you can, we must be in love.

Yeah, they did that one too.

EPMD came on next, and the crowd was remarkably still. I don't know all of the lyrics either, but people seriously need to get up on their shit. After Erick and Parrish I went back to the VIP tent for some $10 mixed drinks and leather couches. I just barely missed Pharoahe at the Meet & Greet, but I did get a chance to say what's up to P and E. They've got a new reunion joint in the cooker, called "We Mean Business" I think.

Talib Kweli went on next and had Mos and Jean Grey guest with him. I was sortof bored by it, yet somehow managed to also miss Blackalicious on the Paid Dues stage at a similar time.

Public Enemy tore shit up and Flava Flav is ridiculous. They day got pretty hazy here. Somewhere between acts they played a Madlib instrumental from the A.G. album Get Dirty Radio (oh it's goooood.)

I think Cypress Hill went on next? I think I stood in 3 bathroom lines during that period of time.

Somewhere in the blur, the Roots played, and it was a live set (no shit live instruments, I mean the music was pumped and the vibe was upp), but the crowd was totally dead. Maybe it was cause it was like, 3:30 after two or three great acts and everyone was a little worn out. I can sympathize. They did a bunch of medley shit that I've been told is common for a Roots set (it was my first time seeing them, I'll be in touch about what happens with Big Daddy Kane and MC Lyte). They played the new shit, the good shit.

MF Doom and Nas didn't show up. Nas was dropped from the online lineup at the last minute. The programs at the show were way off, and still had him on the main stage before or after The Roots. Oops.

Doom was not a surprise. I didn't even bother to try to see him cause of what happened on Thursday. If he really is sick or whatever, he should have just canceled the shows and been up front about it.

Anyways, Wu finally came on and it was tight. They opened with Duel of the Iron Mic (or maybe played it second?), which was ridiculously awesome. Mef took the show away as always, and everyone did a little thing. Ghost did Fish, Redman came on for a song with Mef, Raekwon didn't really do much of anything (dude, where the fuck is Cuban Linx 2??!), Masta spit some shit, Streetlife and Cappa were there. Whole crew. Even the live band came out for a bit.

The Rage came on and did their rage thing. I think I would have liked them a lot more as me 10 years ago. Since many acts had live bands (Pharoahe, the Roots, Wu, Rage, maybe even Public Enemy?), there was a lot of live drumming, but the drum kits all sounded exactly the same, which was really annoying by the end of the night. Tom Morello's guitar sounds were pretty insane, and they played most of the really good shit. They closed with Killing in the Name. No shit. I wonder if anyone told them they should close with their biggest hit...

Technically, though, the festival was run very well. The layout in San Francisco was nice, and despite having to squash 10 wireless mics into a VHF system, the Wu was pretty audible most of the time.

Some qualms: no more pipe vendors. Being able to buy blunt wraps and chillums inside was awesome. I think this was gone last year too. Also, not nearly enough bathrooms in the VIP area. Maybe there were enough outside, but I had no idea where the fuck those were since I didn't see them on the way through the main entrance.

Also, when you're having huge tour events like this, don't print a huge fucking booklet a month and a half before the last show and expect it to be valid. The set times were totally inaccurate and people were totally fucked if they didn't print out the set times online that morning (ahem...)

All in all, there's room to grow, but good job.