Alice Smith

I saw Alice Smith perform last night at Highline Ballroom.

In June 2006 I came across Alice Smith on Big Stereo and sought out a couple of her song. March 2007 I met someone else who dug the song "Dream" as much as I did, and had a deja vu experience. "What song is this" I thought, "How do I know her?" Why of course, from my own musical library.

Every so often I encourage people to jump on board with a particular female vocalist. Its not because I have great musical for sight, I just happen to be in the right place at the right time and know what talent is.

Why you'll listen to her:
Alice Smith was honest to goodness one of the best female vocalist I've seen perform live. Ever. In Life. I didn't think it was still possible for someone to produce the sound that came out of her mouth, without theatrics. Yeah. Think Ethel Waters or Bassie Smith singing the blues in 2008. Modern music for modern times of course, but just as moving.

Standing almost stock still on stage, she made it look like it was the easiest thing in the world to produce a sound that even Alicia Keys appears to struggle with. It took me a minute to register, could that girl be making as big and as dynamic a sound such as she was? Yeah. The conversation of course went back to Things We Know. If Amy Winehouse was Billie Holiday, tragic and talented, then Alice Smith was Sarah Vaughn or Ella Fitzgerald. She'd live to be 80 and has more raw talent to boot. Plus, she's absolutely gorgeous with an insane body. Every one was mesmerized.

Why you'll never hear of her:
Live, you almost wonder whats missing from her album. Well. Her. The recorded songs don't do as much to capture her range and talent as they should and leave something to be desired. She's all performer with a record that could be better.

But if you've ever wanted to see a nice souther girl make good and you dig good music: Listen and Listen and Listen.

Common and Q-tip live at Nokia

Instead of buying my best friend a gift that should could have this weekend, I decided instead to buy her an experience. Choosing to give someone something intangible that they can remember and think back on. Plus she hearts Common Big Time.

All in all the concert was Fresh! minus the first hour that we stood around waiting for Q-tip to come on. They began the night off with a DJ 88-Keys. 88-Keys apparently has a new album coming out, 88-Keys told the audience he had a new album coming out in the middle of every song. He'd start playing a beat that he'd made for Mos Def or Talib and then half way through he's stop the song, Why? Because he needed to talk more about his album coming out.

The next guy, Percee P, is from the same place J-Dilla came from. That's all. That's how they announced him, and that's all I remember. Oh and the guy in the audience who has his middle finger pointed at the stage the entire time he performed.

Q-Tip was so freakin fresh. He performed a lot of old Tribe Called Quest songs such as "Scenario" and "Find a Way", which kept everyone hyped up. He performed some of his own old songs, and songs from his forthcoming album. I'd never seen someone work the crowd the way he did, it was like an hour of dancing and sweating. He had a guy come up to the stage and perform a popular song with him as Phife. Q-tip also brought out Dres from Black Sheep to perform "The Choice is Yours." I wish I'd gotten more pictures and video from his performance but alas here is the only one. Q-tip "Let's Ride":

Then at the end of his performance Scratch took the stage and killed it. I didn't get the best part of his performance, just the intro:
By the time Common took the stage, everyone was fairly tired. To be frank, Q-tip had the better show. Tough act to follow. Although I have to say he did a fairly good job with a crowd that was losing their steam. One of the first songs he performed was Driving Me Wild:
I kept waiting for him to bring out a special guest, and there he was in all his glory Krs-One performing "The Bridge is Over":
Common, Krs-One and Q-tip all got on stage together for a freestyle:
Side note: I've never seen anyone change clothes as much as Common did, not even Kanye when I saw him a while back and he changed quite often. Every few songs, the stage would go dark and he'd come out in a completely new outfit, complete with new accessories (Malcolm glasses, a knit scarf, two/three hats, sunglasses, etc.).

Near to the end he performed "I want you" which I had been waiting for all night:
And "The Light":

There is no way to conclude this except to say sick concert, sick night

(extra song info via: Fantasy Dopegirl)