White bois!

Sunday night from the big weekend had Adrian, Sarah and I at the University of Maryland to see Ghostface Killah. Adrian is a Wu-Tang fan and since UMd. is just a couple of miles away, it seemed like a sweet plan to me.

I’m a happenstance hip-hop fan. My middle and high schools had a lot of hip-hop culture, so I spent a lot of my formative years listening in on the surge of talent from the 90s. I liked both coasts, so I probably couldn’t claim true “fan” status; but I jived with the music enough to recognize a lot of artists, including the Wu-Tang crew. I’d never actually been to a hip-hop concert, though, so it’d be a new thing.

We three went to a favorite bar near campus and teamed up with a friend of Sarah’s from school. We grabbed some food in the hour or two before the concert and talked music and college. It’s definitely a throw back for me to chat about classes and professors again. Last time I chimed in on those sorts of things, Uber Peeps Seth, Santino and I were thinking of ways to burn down Founders, a symbolic “center” of campus for our alma mater (and by “thinking” I mean figuratively venting frustration…I don’t need to be questioned for attempted arson). Since I’m old now I can say things like “Ah, I remember those college days.”

We walked across the campus to the student union. UMd. is big–like 30,000 students big. That’s larger than the town where I graduated high school. Likewise the campus is pretty large. It was a good walk, though, and eventually we got to the building. Along the way I was expecting to see other people heading our direction, but it was pretty deserted, save for the occasional pedestrian or biker.

We got to the student union, asked where the “grand ballroom” was and wound our way through to the concert. The opening act was already on and I noticed three things:

1. White bois.

2. Crappy acoustics.

3. Empty space.

Ghostface was later quoted in the university newspaper as it being the “worst crowd he’d ever performed for.” I didn’t blame him. We spent most of the time clustered around the center like a gaggle of penguins, stiffly swaying to the blaring rhymes. The hype-men did their best to get us to wave our hands in the air or yell, but, to be honest, I wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was Sunday night, maybe it was me not cool with being yelled at to shout, maybe it was the sparse crowd, maybe it was the lack of alcohol…regardless, I thought the night was a dud.

Tickets were free for students, I was told, and, although the gig was “sold out” in record time, apparently not many people took advantage of the show.

Thus endeth Sunday. Meh.

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