Hey! Shad K

Mantis, and his buddy Justice, put on an entertaining enough set for a couple of wanna-be MCs. They each spit a few rhymes that were interesting enough and tried to exude showmanship but I didn't see too much substance underneath it all. Nonetheless it was a good backdrop to a couple of warm-up beers.

Hey Ocean! came on next - a bit of an awkward sandwich of a full indie-rock band between a couple of hip hoppers. However they played a solid set that I thoroughly enjoyed. The lead female vocalist was something to look at and when "the beatboxer who broke her heart" actually started beatboxing I was impressed further. That was a standout song from my view - though the track featuring Shad, that likely prompted this tour, was well done also.

The main event (at least when playing so close to his home of London, and in the town where he went to school) finished the night off with a loose and fun set. Playing a bunch of tunes from The Old Prince he pleased the sold-out crowd at the Starlight who all seemed to be there for him. With his silly looking hat on, he busted out "quest for glory" and "compromise" among others. On "the old prince still lives at home" we got to clap out the end of the beat that the old prince was too cheap to purchase - it went over well (if you don't know what I'm talking about listen to the album cut). Next he had his amazing DJ TLO break out some old skool 80's beats before getting him to wind it back, cuz as Shad said, sometimes "I don't really like to."

The only disappointment of the night led to probably the most entertaining part. Attempting to slow it down and bust out the acoustic guitar Shad found that there was nothing coming out of the speakers. Rather than fiddle with it he handed over the guitar to the tech and started rhyming a cappella into the mic. He started slow but quickly picked up his flow and in moments had the crowd in stitches. Every other line was incredibly constructed and totally hilarious - and with the guitar troubles continuing so did Shad K. He didn't run outta material for the full 5 minutes that he waited before trying the guitar again without luck and deciding to move on with the set. As I told Shad when I bumped into him after the show- it was probably my favourite part of the evening. The rest of which was solid, and included a rather short and impromptu encore before he turned it over to DJ Teelo for a lesson in scratch that concluded the night. It was good enough for me to plan to return and see him again in Guelph on Tuesday at the Vinyl- this time hopefully the acoustic guitar will be ready to go!