Jurassic 5
Date: November 10, 2006 'Til the Dust Settles Jurassic 5 made the most of their first visit to Ottawa. Despite touring in support of a subpar album, Feedback, and despite the absence of turntable wizard Cut Chemist, the group still knew how to deliver a killer live performance. With solid song selection, great pacing, and tight interplay, Jurassic 5 had a sold-out crowd hopping and screaming through seemingly every moment of their long set. Opening duties on this tour were handled by Cadence Weapon, whose ample critical praise had my curiosity piqued. Fortunately, he was able to deliver on the hype, displaying a poise and stage presence that defied his youth. With DJ Weez-L providing his backing, Cadence came out strong, with a powerful yet clear lyrical flow. Even when he pushed his vocals aggressively, his clever wordplay was easy to decipher. As forceful as his delivery was, Cadence was very easy-going in his demeanour, joking, clinking bottles with the crowd, and constantly calling out to "Ottawa-wee-wah." The one drawback in the night was the overly long changeover time, which ran longer than the opening set, despite the fact that all of the equipment was sitting ready on stage for the headliners. When Nu-Mark finally came out and unveiled his turntables, though, all was forgiven, with the crowd continuing to roar its approval as the four MCs took the stage in sequence, each arriving to handle his lead verse of "Back 4 U." In fact, the audience was very amped all night, gamely playing along with every request from the band, pumping their fists to "Freedom" and screaming the chorus to "I Am Somebody." (The fact that Soup jokingly heckled "the one lady in the whole room who didn't join in" on one occasion may have provided additional encouragement but I doubt that the fans really needed it.) Along with the aforementioned songs, other older highlights included "What's Golden," "High Fidelity," "Hey," "Quality Control," and "Concrete Schoolyard." However, it was Feedback that contributed the most to the set, with the new songs coming across quite well live. "Future Sound" and "Red Hot" held up as strongly as the classics, while the band put an interesting twist on "Baby Please," slowing down in unison as they came to the end. Jurassic 5 spiced up their set with a few diversions, including one breakdown where they revealed a series of wooden school desks, each with a pad for programmed beats. Each member took a seat and began adding sounds until they had constructed a cohesive song. Nu-Mark took a few moments to shine over the night, including an impressive stint working two Fisher Price musical toys fed into a crossfader. Although I had seen the trick in Montreal on the previous tour, I had a better angle to see what he was doing on this night; and it remained an enjoyable spectacle. The interaction between the MCs was also fun to watch. During one song, Chali 2Na jumped off the side of the stage and delivered all his rhymes while acting the part of a zealous fan, jumping around and reaching out as if to grab the other rappers. More than anything, though, the Jurassic 5 concert was an illustration of consistency and pacing. The band came out on fire and never let up throughout a concert that spanned an hour and forty minutes by the time that the encore wrapped up with an extended freestyle. Jurassic 5 remains a stellar live outfit; and hopefully their first visit to the capital won't be their last. <--Prev (The New Pornographers) | Next (The Dears)-->Return to Concert ListReturn to Main Page |