Wu-Tang Clan @ Hammerstein Ballroom NYC 01-17-08 [REVIEW]

[tekunique]

yoyo first of all the show was off the hook last night. despite couple things which i'll get to first.

1. NO RZA - nowhere to be found.. seems like hes been MIA this tour and its starting to bug me out a bit. the inner wu-chemstry seems to fade a lil somethin with the abbot missin all these shows.

2. NO 8 DIAGRAMS TRACKS PERFORMED - not one song off the album... i was kinda pissed cuz i mean...THIS IS THE 8 DIAGRAMS TOUR !, not a WU CLASSICS TOUR. i was really lookin forward to see them do shit off the album, specially Rushin Elephants, Campfire, Windmill, Stick Me For My Riches, Wolves & Unpredictable.... them shits would have sounded FIRE live... its really fucked up.. me & my girl was talkin and were like RZA probably wanted to do the new songs and the clan didnt and thats why RZA was a no show ? fuck knows.. its just sad what it is right now..

Now that we got the pet peeves out the way....THE GOOD PART :

first of all, the dj that was on from when niggaz got in til about 8:45pm SUCKED major donkey balls. not even cuttin shit up right nor mixing them. a child on an ipod could have done better. really boring ass corn dj foreal.
at about 8:45 MR. CEE gets on the mic, hypes the crowd a bit then he starts DJin. he playes for about an hour of STRAIGHT 90s HIP HOP MADNESS !!!
holy fuck he was droppin dope cuts left & right got the whole crowd into it the whole time, not losing us one bit. by around 10pm, THE CLAN emerges.

i must say, ive been to many wu-tang clan concerts in the past but this show had the best SOUND. all the mics were crisp clean and loud enuff, all the tracks played by mr. Cee & Allah Math were sounding almost perfect in terms of the frequencies flowin thru the speakers. i was very impressed with the sound in general cuz alot of the past shows ive been to, the main thing that bothered me was the poor sound output.

math & wu started things off with 'aint nuttin ta f' wit' and took us on a trip of wu goodies, i cant remember hearing anything i havent seen them perform before in the past shows besides "What The Blood Clot" but Meth absolutely destroyed it ! by far the best Meth energy & performance @ this show from beg. to end.. he really carried the show thruout interacting with the crowd & the clan brushing off any dull moments, if there were any during the 1.5hrs @ hammerstein. Math killed the track completely 2 times during Cappa's verses and let him rock it accappella and he sounded amazing, the dude was just goin off. the ODB tribute was the one of the longest ive heard them do, with Meth doing some parts of Brooklyn Zoo, Shimmy Shimmy Ya, & the intro 8 bars of "Got Your Money" were played, with ODB's daughter & moms on stage.

wu finnished off with "Triumph" as theyve been doing since the RTB tour and Rae & Meth sending us off with a nice message about real [new york] hip hop and its upto us to support it and keep it alive. gave a shout to couple celebs on stage as well like Tracey Morgan & very oddly Puffy who was rockin the "W" during one of their last songs. whatevers.. i was like "Booo get the fuck off the stage ~" last thing i can care about is puffy at a wu show.. that just downgraded the experience a slight notch..

all in all a great show with great energy. i mentioned what dislikes were already so i'll leave that alone. whoever else went, hope yall had fun. peace.

[eRUTHLESS666]

yea i was there too it was a dope show, the only reason why puffy showed up is because he was at the chris brown show at the garden down the street, i heard some bitches on the train talking about it haha but it was a dope show all in all

[DCasper]

Great summary of the concert tekunique. I was there as well. Dead center in the front. Only thing i can add is Redman coming out to Da Rockwilder and Petey Pablo at the end. Overall it was an awesome show. The sound was amazing. Meth brought the energy. Gza seemed to be kind of quiet. At one point while U-God was on the mic, i realized why i regard him as the weakest clan member. The crowd was cool. 1 little scuffle off to the right side. But other than that.. No problems. Mad heads blazing and i was able to bring a camera into the venue. Here's some pics that i took...




Took a hit, then took a pic.


















Here's a .gif of Meth smashing into my camera lol


And here's a video of Method Man standing on the crowd right above me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ke0mwiyjAc

[I.D.C]

[
Here's a .gif of Meth smashing into my camera lol


[/quote]

beautyfull

[Rame]

You pulled Meths pants?

[Chris79]

Good review although that scuffle was right behind me and it was pretty major cause the guy who got caught in the stranglehold looked like he had a broken nose...he had some blood on him too...I was lucky I wasnt trampled by security...that was crazy...not something I want happening around me in a crowd ha

All in all, it was a dope show...and youre right, that DJ who was on before Mister Cee was garbage...everything from the mixing to the song selection sucked...he was all over the place...for some reason, he looked like DJ Enuff to me but hopefully, it wasnt him...and I have to disagree about Mister Cee's DJ set...I thought the second half was kinda lackluster....the first half, he played dope 90s hip-hop...he kept on taking it back and back...but then he switched it up and played Dipset and all this other stuff I've never heard of or even felt...it was kinda blah

[Chris79]

Yo D...didnt know who you were until I saw your comment on the site...nice pics man and that Meth gif is hilarious man ha

See you at BCC tonight...yo, they got openers too so who knows when theyll be on

[tekunique]

but then he switched it up and played Dipset and all this other stuff I've never heard of or even felt...it was kinda blah

yeah actually youre right. wasnt really feelin when he got into the dipset stuff and semi new shit like 03' shit.. but overall it was a great warm up to wu.peace.

[Dirty Knowledge]

Hahahaha @ the camera phone Meth broke

[DCasper]

Just to clarify something. I didn't pull down Meth's pants. Thats not my hand. And he didn't break my camera. Just kind of dove into my hand. I recovered quickly and continued recording lol. Also i bought a DVD for $10 outside Hammerstein from some guy claiming it's from the concert on the 12th. And to my surprise it's a pretty decent full concert video from someone on stage recording the show. Although most of the video is from the side view or behind the Wu members. Still worth the $$.

No doubt I'll see you tonight.

[Rame]

Just kidding, nice to see you had a good time, Red & Meth will perform here in a couple of months, i'm looking forward to that. Last time was dope.

[the blazed sage]

Ok, time to add on a little bit. I was lucky enough to see the WU twice in less than a week. The 12th and 17th were both great shows, and I mean tony tiger grrreat, although last night's show was a bit better than Saturday's even though i couldn't blow out because i was in the front leaning on the railling. The second I sparked up security maded me put it out so I thought fuck it I'll blow this monster down the second I get off the X1 bus cause fuck taking the ferry that late I had work the next day and a bitchy baby moms at home.
(*sidenote: ended up not smoking shit due to pretty heavy rain on the walk home, that sucker is still in my fuckin drawer waiting to get lit).

Ooookay. Uncomfortable wait on line due to hail/rain. whatever. get in venue. mediocre DJ spins some shit. Even though this DJ wasn't anything special, that shit was a welcome change to the absence of any music or opening act while waiting for the WU to hit the stage on Saturday night. So then Mr. Cee comes on, rips shit up with his throwback hour shit. Was getting the crowd amped. Then he started playing ROC BOYS ("Wu-Tang is in the building tonight, oh my god im feeling llight" and Styles P new album, which was dope to me. He started asking the crowd who the weakest rapper out now is, most people shouted either Soulja or 50. One guy doing the superman up up and away with his hand.

Then Wu hit the stage to Nuthin ta F With, like they've been doing throughout the tour. On Sat. they said they would switch up the set list for Thursday. I only noticed about 2 or 3 minor differences: Deck fuckin did Guillotine Swordz off Cuban Linx, Masta did his verse off Glaciers instead of No Said Date....I think that's all that was different. anyone else who went to both shows let me know of any other differences.

And it was real ill seeing Diddy on stage throwing up that W during Triumph. That was monumental. Red was cool to see on Rockwilder, Petey Pablo came out for a sec. I dunno, nothing much else coming to mind. Maybe some more shit will come back after I light up.

[eRUTHLESS666]

yea that was a dope show, i got in around 8 30 and as the dude is scanning my ticket i looked up and saw the entire theodore unit (no ghost) and i walked over and slapped trife's hand and asked him about dropping a solo album and he said "its coming in march" then me trife and sun god took a pic, it was really dope seeing them with the fans right by the merchandise but it was kinda sad that no one knew who they were. When i walked up to him he seemed really greatful haha overall the show was heat, i went to both the 12th and 17th and this one was much better, weird ghostface intro when he didnt come out until they say GHOST-FACE KILLLAHHHH on mystery of chessboxin, which was like 4 songs in, i was kinda scared at first that rza and ghost wouldnt be there.

[Fright]

someone share videos if you got

[InvincibleArmor79]

cool u got some pics.. jus a few questions 4 ya... were cameras permitted there? jus curious.. did anyone spot cappa at all? im wonderin why rzz cant make it and shit.. how was their shit managed? like, did they come out 1 ata time, or what? and how many songs/verses did they do each?? im tryna compare to the concert i went to back in Feb 2001 with what they're doin now..