Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Revolution, Fort Lauderdale
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The review:
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony performing E. 1999 Eternal in its entirety with a live band did not sound like a winner at all. Several jokes later regarding the Revolution staff out front handing out tickets in the streets before the show, I had a different feeling.
As the opening snare hits of "Da Introduction" rained down from
above not only was the highly intoxicated, all-ages crowd at capacity,
it was completely going off! Something in the woofing wall of bass,
double-time high hats and trademark mellow-but-lightning speed flow gives
Bone fans musical Parkinson's. By the time they got to "Budsmokers
Only" the entire audience was vibrating uncontrollably and rapidly
moving their fingers like a gangster rap version of jazz hands.
Maybe it was the nostalgic smell of cheap weed, or the fact that everyone
there looked like someone I went to high school with but it was all
coming back -- the screaming recognition of how important this
coast-neutral group was in that period of the mid-'90s when East-West rap
relations were at an all time low. And being rap's Switzerland is
something you could tell Bone Thugs still took very seriously, evident
in a lengthy intermission from E. 1999 to pay homage to both Biggie
Smalls and Tupac.
This, of course, was also a perfect segue into the
thug funeral anthem "Tha Crossroads", which with the help of their live
band (introduced as the Band-Aid Boyz) flowed continuously into extra
hype versions of "1st of Tha Month" and "Buddha Lovaz." Despite the
copious amounts of Hennessy being consumed on stage, Bone Thug's rapid-fire
melodies were pretty much flawless from start to finish and although
they deviated slightly and skipped around a little, they kept their
promise of an all E. 1999 Eternal show. A formal apology to Krayzie,
Layzie, Bizzy, Wish and Flesh-n-Bone, I stand corrected.
