Slaughterhouse sets SOB's on FIRE...May 25th 2011

Well, we decided to do something a little different here for the 48th installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series-we're going rouge on this one. We're headed out to a club called SOB's in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City teetering on the borderlines of the Lower East Side, catching an “impromptu” show featuring the Hip Hop super-group known as “Slaughterhouse”(recently signed to Eminem's Shady Records label), consisting of rappers 'Joe Budden', 'Joel Ortiz', 'Royce Da 5'9'' and 'Crooked I'.. As previous mentioned in a post here, “Budden is one of the handful of Hip Hop artists I'd go see. The lyrics on songs from his debut album way back when helped me get out of a bad time of my life ”. And that said, when the members started tweeting the night before about an “impromptu” show at SOB's the next night, a night that was billed for just Crooked I with opening acts “CMR” and Emilio Rojas. Doors at 7, show at 9. So I texted my buddy Chach(who you can follow on twitter @OneShotChach) and told him the news on Tuesday night, and we said why not check this out for 15 bucks? Being that I turned Chach into an avid concert goer (taking him to STP and Filter 5/31/08 now he goes to Summerjam and saw Jay-Z and Eminem at Yankee Stadium last year), I figured it could be fun to be rolling with him as oppose to him rolling with me; besides the fact I'd had a rough Monday and Tuesday sitting in my house bored as hell with the school semester being over and everything. So I ask everyone to open their minds here, and prepare to get weird...

Great to have the feeling of the welfare line while waiting to get into SOB's, it adds to the ambiance of this night sort of. We were there at 7 and we waited, and waited for what felt like forever and they finally opened the doors at like 730-745 and we entered this so called dinner club..

We were on line early, but not early enough as the space leaning on the stage was taken by the 6 people on line before us so we were regulated to being a head or two back. Standing room only-besides a seated section left of the stage that had signs reading “$25 minimum to sit”..If I knew I could sit for dinner during the show, I wouldn't have made that McDonalds pit stop beforehand. That said, those tables lined up over there looked so out of place, and who knows if they'd let us sit there all night; so lets stand here, I can get some good pictures from here.

There was an MC for the evenings proceedings.. funny dude too called “Low Key”(Twitter: @LowKeyUHTN).. who introduced all the acts and stuff, inbetween mixing in the roll call of the boroughs i.e. “Is ______ in the house?” and gaging the rooms reactions. This place only fits about 350-400 people, so when it started filling out I'm happy to report we did eventually have more than the two of us representing Staten Island “in the house”.

After 9, we began the parade of opening acts BEFORE the opening acts. I can't even begin to tell you how many acts went on that I have no recollection of. It was frustrating looking at our watches and it's creeping past 10 and no one on the bill has came on yet. To put it in perspective, we were on line at 7PM-Joe Budden tweeted that he was leaving his house(in NJ) at 7:23. Looking like we're in for a long night..

Eventually the first official listed opener came on, and man was it worth it. Emilio Rojas. This dude was, how do you say, 'a beast on the mic'. Had more than a few clever punchlines, the room went “Ohhhhh!” often during his almost 20 minute set in which the highlight was an accapella verse of lyrical genius. Speeding up and slowing down his flow, throwing out punchlines to die for, my favorite being something to the effect of “My mother didn't want me/no stranger to wire hangers”. Awesomeness. I got a pic of him and Chach when he got off stage. Check him out on YouTube, he killed it.

After the next listed opener CMR came on and went off, up on the stage came 4 dudes from the West Coast called COB(Circle of Bosses) came on stage and got crazy for a few minutes. This is another crew that Crooked I rolls with, so they basically led into him coming up on stage and doing a few of his own numbers.. we're at 11:30 right now.

Finally we look to our right and there is Royce Da 5'9'' standing in the crowd waiting to walk up on stage. As soon as everyone realized the show had officially started-some dude 4 people to my left sparked up one of the fattest blunts I've ever scene, with the “yea I'm smoking-so what?” look-he was texting and everything. Event staffers? That's a negative. I figured that was the green light for cigarette smoking.

Royce was introduced, shortly followed by Joel Ortiz and finally my man Joe Budden. When they all eventually made it up there, they jumped into a song called “Sound Off”.. once this night got started, I can really say it was awesome. Watching the crowd bounce up and down-Chach included. Watching the excitement unfold-having forgotten my SD card at home I wasn't taking constant video so I was able to get into these songs that I hardly know, opening up my mind and enjoying the evening.. They did “2.0 Boyz” and “Microphone” as the night rolled along. At one point Joe Budden picked three members of the crowd to come up on stage and rap a verse of whatever Slaughterhouse song they drop a beat to. It was an awkward spot-and they all failed at it. It was part funny, part sad, part “I feel like you guys are killing time on stage”ish.

Two biggest highlights of tonight was Royce teasing a song off a project with Eminem called “Bad Meets Evil”. Song called “Fast Lane”. You hear that and you look up on stage and you're like “damn, I remember hearing Royce rap with Eminem on the Slim Shady LP when I was in like 8^th grade”. We're in the room with a veteran here.

But the number one thing to take from this night is Joe Budden doing his latest hit (with us fans at least) “Ordinary Love Shit Part 3”. It's a song that gets in depth describing a relationship with a girl named Esther Baxter who apparently was having sexual relations with NFL running back Derrick Ward-taken from the line “why's ol' girl sucking off Derrick Ward for?”. And I'm telling you this was like the proof of Joe Buddens massive following as most of the crowd rapped along with every verse. Funny social networking references in the song too like “You won't Skype, won' G-mail chat, won't OovoO!” and “You said the WiFi was down in the telly/you ain't say you was at hotel his house” The song is so real, as most of Buddens songs it covers not the glamor and glitz of money cars and hoes of hip hop life but sticks to stuff people like me can relate to-shitty times, being sad, dumped, addicted to things and helpless. And I'm so glad some professional has a video of it from that nights show on YouTube already-I'll try to put it in the post..

and this guy filming is like right behind me because this feels like where I was watching from. The group continued to rock the stage after that and they didn't go off til about 12:35AM . Felt like longer than an hour. Awesome night.

So we did something a little different and it paid off so far. I mean, I enjoyed my night I hope you all stuck with me on this one. It's not like I went to see some garbage like Kayne West, or Puff Daddy or freakin Solider Boy-this was a team of lyrical assassins we saw here tonight. Being sort of a word smith myself, I tend to appreciate the intellect and honesty that comes across in the lyrics of these four artists I saw tonight. Fun times at SOB's.. just wish I had a chair..

Next time we're out and about should be June 11^th for Coheed and Cambria's free show at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn.. I work til four, and I doubt there's a max capacity so we should be in there... lets hope we're not too far back. Thanks for staying tuned.. LATE