The Metal Files

Hold the presses!  Are you rubbing your eyes to make sure you’re reading this correctly?  Did someone highjack The Metal Files?  Dude…Cheap Trick, Chicago, Pat Benatar?  What the hell’s going on around here? (said in a Mike Muir voice).

Yes, my faithful readers (all 4 of you), I saw Coolio last night.  Voluntarily on purpose even.  A little history.  It was 1994 when his album It Takes a Thief came out and Fantastic Voyage was blasted all over MTV and the airwaves.  I liked that song and picked up the cassette.  It grew on me but never really got into anything he did after that.  To be truthful, I generally don’t like rap or hip-hop and don’t even know what the difference is between the two.  Can anyone explain the difference between the two?  There were a few songs from the early 90s from those genres that I did like, but it was all of that radio friendly party stuff.

I had read on Friday that Coolio was playing Scoot Inn on June 30 and decided to go.  I tried getting some friends to go with me without any success as seen below.  I went alone, which was fine.

Local rapper Click Clack opened the show with a 30 minute set.  I didn’t hear any of it.  Yes, I was there but I tend to drown out that stuff.  Then after about 20 minutes, Coolio comes out and opens with From the Bottom To the Top.  He had his nephew and cousin co-singing/rapping with him.  His cousin, Jarez, is apparently an accomplished saxophone player and he showed that in a few songs last night.  The dude was really good.

While I know that Fantastic Voyage would be the encore, I was hoping for some older stuff from the Thief album.  I wanted to hear Count Line, Ugly Bitches and Mama I’m In Love Wit a Gangsta.  No luck.  They of course did Gangsta’s Paradise and 1, 2, 3, 4.

Overall the show was fun albeit short.  The encore version of Fantastic Voyage only included the first verse and chorus.  WTF?  How do you not do the whole song?

I’m tryin’ to find a place where I can live my life
And maybe eat some steak with my beans and rice
A place where my kids can play outside
Without livin’ in fear of a drive-by

I was wondering before I got there what the crowd would be like.  There may have been about 200 people there.  I’ll tell you this, I was the most “street” person there.  The place was filled with douchebag looking fratboys and sorority girls.  It was so vanilla that I thought I may have been at a Dave Matthews concert.  No shit.  Oh well.  It was cool for what it was and I got to meet him on my way out to my car.  Nektar, Steely Dan and Black Sabbath reviews coming soon!