DJ Quik, Suga Free, Flesh-N-Bone
December 16th, 2011
City National Grove of Anaheim
If you think the crowd at a DJ Quik concert in 2011 will bring out an audience full of O.G. fans, think again.
Friday night's DJ Quik show at the City National Grove of Anaheim brought out an all ages crowd–and believe me, it was all ages. All walks of life made this show great for one of my favorite hobbies, people watching.
As expected, it was a complete sell-out. There were pimp and ho scenarios a-plenty, with most of the “hos” looking like they were freezing on that windy night. If you can believe it, two people even wore the same leopard ankle bootie platforms! I could go on and on about there being a 10-year-old in the audience, and the amount of drunk and stoned kids in attendance, but I'd rather get to the show which was supposed to start at 8 p.m. (Well, it did, but I'll explain after the jump.)
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The show was promoted as Quik with Suga Free and Flesh-N-Bone, but to
our dismay, that wasn't all that was in store for us. Since almost all
main acts have opening acts, we hit the general admission venue to check
out who was on stage because they certainly didn't sound familiar.
Ahead of time, pardon me for not knowing who they were and completely
botching their correct names.
This first act had audio that was super loud and the music was
apparently being mixed by a ghost because there was only one guy on
stage rapping. That of course didn't stop him from yelling, “Keep it
going DJ!” Also, I believe this guy's name was “Papa” (at least that is
what it sounded like he said) and he mentioned that he had a mixtape. I
am sure he was thrilled to be sharing a stage with Quik. What I did
understand during this performance was that his favorite two words were,
“fucka” and “bitch.” Not necessarily in that order. Back outside to
people watch….
Flesh-N-Bone has got to be next right? Not at all. At this point I am
going to spare you the details of the opening acts that went on and on
from 8:15 p.m. until 10:40 p.m., and included a total number of four opening acts. One
of them ended up getting booed while the restless crowd chanted, “DJ
QUIK! DJ QUIK!” I understand being exposed to new music but this was
just too much and too long. Sometimes too much can be a bad thing.
Finally, at 10:40 p.m., Flesh-N-Bone hit the stage with his five hypemen. I think the crowd was happy to see a familiar face on stage at this
point because they went wild! Rapping songs like “Gorilla Hustle” and
“For the Love of Money,” the audience had hands up and the ever-present
scent of weed floated up as well. Flesh-N-Bone gave the microphone a
verbal tongue lashing and at 11:15 p.m., the crowd had enough and went back to chanting “DJ
QUIK! DJ QUIK!”
I guess at this time it would be safe to say the crowd was feeling
pretty fine from hours of drinking and smoking and when a “Quik Groove”
started playing, they audience went ape shit. Quik took the stage
dressed in white from head to toe with his hair flowing and aviator
shades shielding his eyes from the iPhone camera flashes. He picked up a
guitar and “funkdafied” the house.
Throughout his set he passed off the
microphones to the crowd, and it was obvious that there were some true diehard fans
in the house because they rapped every word. Quik also left the stage
several times and emerged with a blunt (maybe filled with tobacco?) and
puffed and passed it into the crowd. Security looked nervous. Quik
killed the stage as promised, belting out classic songs mixed with a few
new ones all while never breaking a sweat. Quik was perfection.
Suga Free came out stomping–literally–with a bedazzled pimp cane, and
the excitement in the venue hit an all-time high. He was decked in all
black and got the crowd going with songs “If You Stay Ready” and “Why U
Bullshittin?” He also shouted out the funniest shit on stage like, “Who
wants to be my ho tonight? How about this bitch up front with the big
ass titties?” and “Que pasa up in this mother fucker?” He didn't miss a
beat. At one point he even stopped the show to sign an autograph on a
fan's record, proving once and for all, “Suga Free is the realist.”
Quik did say he and Suga Free were like Penn and Teller on stage and
he was right. They bring out the silly in each other. As a longtime
fan of both of these men, it was great to see the team back together!
The duo rocked the house with songs like “Down, Down, Down,” and “Do I
Love Her.” Their show was great with the exception of the overly
spasmatic dancing of the chick next to me invading my personal space
with her big-ass purse hitting me the whole way through it. If I was a
little taller I would have bumped back, but alas, I'm short and she enjoyed
herself.
Quik thanked the crowd, left the stage, and then the oddest thing
happened. While the crowd chanted for an encore, another rap group came
out and just started going for it! I will say, I have no clue who they
were but I almost felt bad for them because the crowd beelined to the
doors like there was a fire. I guess they knew something I didn't know,
the show was over. I really did think Quik would come back out because
who has a “closing act” after a long ass show like that? I guess Quik
can do what he wants, it's his show after all.
Critic's Bias:
Even though there were too many opening acts and I would have preferred
to have all Quik and Suga Free, he still gave one hell of a performance
and the crowd hung in there throughout the long four-and-a-half hour
show.
The Crowd:
Where do I even start with this one? Everyone was ready to have a good
time and were good and saucy…I suspect even the underage were drinking
because there is no way a particular drunken group of girls I saw were over
21. No way. I wondered if the crowd would be “older-ish” because DJ Quik
has been around so long. Turns out his fans come in all ages which is a
testament to how great of an artist Quik is.
Overheard in the Crowd:
“There are some babies on stage right now! Who are those kids?”
“Girl, let me hit that ragamuffin!”
“I know she's cold in those overall shorts and tube top. I think I wore an outfit like that 15 years ago!”
“Wait. Is she wearing a tube top as a skirt? Someone needs to put out an APB on her ass!”
Random Notebook Dump: The security staff hired at
the venue was one of the most horrendous I've ever dealt with. With a
rule of “no cameras for press” until 10:30 p.m., 98 percent of the audience had
their camera phones rolling from start to finish. I literally had to
take my camera back to my car and was told they'd be “nice enough” to
let me go back to get it. What? I couldn't be trusted until 10:30 p.m.?
Luckily like every other person there, I have a great camera on my
phone. Ridiculous and pointless.
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Ali Lerman knows much about comedy, basketball, and celebrating Wu-Tang Wednesday. She’s been writing for sixteen years and still calls her mom with grammatical questions.
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