I'll be at the Las Vegas Show on Jan. 3rd.
Shit, I leave Boise, ID. the 27th, I'll just miss'em in Boise.
1/4/2008 Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ
- GET AT ME FOR TICKETS -
$40 in advance
$45 day of show
Doors 6:30pm
Show 8:00pm
All Ages bar w/ Valid ID
man i just hope they come to va
Gettin ready to run this art shyt.
I'mma be at the WU YEAR show in Oregon
me too! i'm surprised they have a show on new year's eve.
what the fuck? why is the philly show cancelled?
^^ check this
Fuck yeah. First show post 8 diagrams release is in CHICAGO!
Hopefully they don't kill each other over money and all show up. I mean, why would they tour now if RZA never paid them for their Rock The Bells shit?
I hope it works out....
It's been twenty-two long hard years of still strugglin
Survival got me buggin, but I'm alive on arrival
I peep at the shape of the streets
And stay awake to the ways of the world cause shit is deep.
-Inspectah Deck
Woo! Wu-Tang Clan sized up
Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man mounted a stack of speakers. All photos by Ben Hopfer.
By Ben Hopfer
What do you do when the cold weather kicks in and all your friends are out of town? If you’re like me you go see the Wu-Tang Clan. Braving the cold and rain, I arrived at Ruby Skye on Dec. 27 to check out the Wu, out on their "8 Diagrams" tour. I find it kind of funny that they named the tour after their latest album, one that multiple members have publicly stated that they are unhappy with. Yet my curiosity drew me in to see the group for the umpteenth time.
The opening act, a local artist Benflows, got off to a slow start. While it wasn’t a terrible performance, he should have known that openers shouldn’t try to pull a call-and-response session with a crowd that wasn’t warmed up at all. He called, but no one responded. Bay Area crew Rec League was up next. Now I may come off as a hater, but member Richie Cunning is far and above the best member of the group. While the rest went through the rap-show paces, Cunning actually put on a respectable performance and stood out individually due to his efforts. If only it was a solo act. The Bayonics closed out the opening set and brought live hip-hop to the stage the way it’s supposed to be done.
The uncanny Richie Cunning of Rec League.
I’ve been bumping the Wu since Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Loud) dropped in high school. I've had the privilege of seeing them multiple times, but I have to say that Ruby Skye was not the venue for them. The ridiculous ticket prices coupled with expensive drinks, the security that seemed to be everywhere, and the small stage that barely contained the group definitely left a chip on my shoulder. With seven of the nine remaining members of the group showing up - RZA and Ghostface Killah were absent - at least we had a quorum. From what I hear, RZA wasn’t wanted on the tour after members felt their input was ignored on 8 Diagrams (Street/Universal Motown), and Ghostface missed the date because of a court appearance back home.
Back and forth: Method Man, from left, and Inspectah Deck.
The show sported the archetypal Wu-Tang sound - loud and dirty - as the clan shared the stage and took turns spitting verses. At one point Method Man climbed the speaker stacks and jumped into the crowd, like he always does. And not a single song off the new album was performed. But after a few classics I just felt that I had seen it all before and decided to take my ass home to my warm bed.
In the end, my biggest gripe was the time it took for them to actually get on stage. At least an hour passed from the end of the Bayonics set before Wu-Tang graced the stage at 12:30 a.m. Maybe I’m getting old, but if I wanted to stand in a crowd at midnight, I’m sure I could find a place to do so that didn’t cost $70.
from ruby skye:
(user andreamoniquewiley from youtube)
Master rappers bring down the house (link)
By Andrew Matson
Special to The Seattle Times
ERIC KAYNE / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Instead of performing tracks from its adventurous new album "8 Diagrams," Wu-Tang Clan tore the roof off Showbox SoDo Sunday with the same workmanlike set it brought to Bumbershoot last summer.
But coming from the Clan, even a dutiful hit parade — bafflingly hard core and utterly emotional — is avant-garde hip-hop to the highest degree. A predominantly white and overwhelmingly sweaty crowd ate it up.
Echoing through Showbox SoDo's hangarlike showroom, woodblock hits and percussive knuckle cracks never sounded so vicious as on early hit "Bring Da Ruckus"; and "C.R.E.A.M." — a cold, brooding ode to capitalism — remained crushing for Inspectah Deck's bitter revelation that smoking marijuana does not make him any less depressed. Nobody had ever made a song like "C.R.E.A.M." when it came out in 1993, and nobody has since.
Underneath the audience's nonstop screaming was the understanding that Wu-Tang is rap's most iconoclastic group.
The Clan's leader (and visionary producer) RZA was a no-show, but his presence was hardly missed. Live, Method Man is Wu-Tang's de facto front man, and his effortless movie-star charisma was truly a thing to behold. After stage-diving into an ocean of "W" hand signs, he gingerly stood on top of fans' hands.
Once he found his footing, Method Man was locked in. Thundering through one of his own pre-millennium classics, "Da Rockwilder," Mr. Meth could've just held the microphone to the crowd; "Da Rockwilder" — like most Wu-Tang songs — inspires people to rap along. And that they did, as Meth tore through the song's verses with snarling, smirking intensity. It was one of rap's best performers doing exactly the kind of massive, head-banging rap people paid to see. Ending the song with a spinning back-flop into the audience, the crowd exploded in aggressive, hard core joy.
Method Man's attitude hit like the world's most-welcome ton of bricks: This, the Showbox seemed to grasp at once, is a real MC.
Star-power reality is what Wu-Tang is all about. The obligatory memorial for sadly departed Clansman Old Dirty Bastard resonated, even though the lines were recycled ("We do this every night, but Seattle is the live-est!"). O.D.B.'s high-voltage persona — like Method, Ghostface Killah, GZA and most of Wu-Tang proper — called him to this vocation exactly. Wu-Tang's members are in touch with some kind of pure rap essence, and that's what the Showbox responded to more than anything. Stomping through their vicious set with entitled swagger, Inspectah Deck, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Masta Killa, Cappadonna, U-God and Streetlife proved Wu-Tang is preternaturally, timelessly awesome.
Local heavy rock band Furious Styles opened to scattered booing until two of the finest rap groups in the 206 — Cancer Rising and Dyme Def — got the crowd energized.
After that, it was straight Wu-Tang, no chaser.
new dates added:
Wed, April 16, 2008
Fillmore NY @ Irving Plaza
Doors: 8:00 pm
Show: 9:30 pm
Advance Tickets $55.00
Wu-Tang 2008 Tour Dates
04/16/08 Fillmore at Irving Plaza New York, NY
04/17/08 Crocodile Rock Allentown, PA
04/20/08 Main Street Armory Rochester, NY
04/24/08 House of Blues Atlantic City Atlantic City, NJ
04/29/08 The Tabernacle Atlanta, GA
More to follow I'm sure. Via Bumpershine.
damn, this group must be broke, they just finished a tour but i'll be damned if I miss that NYC show.
So is Rza gonna be at these shows? I'm guessing not because I know he's gonna be in London on April 28th. Is he purposely booking solo shows at the same time as wu shows? It's fucked up, they need to all perform together
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