Chuck D Shook My Hand.

Santa Cruz, August 19th, 2007 - the Catalyst

I was standing outside the Catalyst, in line to go in for the show, when a group of dudes on the other side of the street called across to the line: "Hey! You waiting to see Flavor-Flav?! He's at Taco Bell!"

Sure enough, ten minutes later there's Flav riding by on his bicycle! Waving and grinning his patented gold-toothed grin, with a huge dude in an XXXL Public Enemy t-shirt biking along behind him.

Everybody started laughing. You couldn't help but laugh! There was Flavor-Flav, just riding his bike down Pacific Ave after enjoying a nice Taco Bell. It seemed like an absurd turn of events.

Public Enemy playing Santa Cruz. Wow. Who'd have thunk that. Final night of their 59th tour, their 20th Anniversary tour. Just the night before, they played in San Francisco in front of dozens of thousands of fans as part of the "Rock the Bells" tour. Or festival. Or loosely-connected series of festivals - or whatever it is. Then the next night, they're playing in an intimate venue like the Catalyst in front of a small but mostly rabid audience. As Chuck D observed, remarking on that very topic: "WE LOVE THESE INTIMATE VENUES. WE'RE GONNA MAKE THIS PLACE OUR LIVING ROOM BY THE END OF THE NIGHT, IT'S ALL ONE FAMILY IN HERE!"

In case you've never heard him speak, everything Chuck D says is capitalized. I don't know how to truly characterize that voice of his, the sheer volume and clarity with which he just flat-out declares shit. It's like a reverse speech-impediment or something.

He shook my hand.

He shook my hand. And it made me feel all conflicted - I felt like an idiot, a poser, a wannabe, a fan, like he was humoring me in contrast to the others who were clearly more maybe the target crowd. I don't look like it. But this man is just such an inspiration I don't regret it anyway. I think he saw through me, but whatever. He may not have realized.

Before the show, he shook my hand. I'm not normally star-struck or anything, but damn. Chuck D shook my hand. He was shaking everybody's hand!

Posing with people for cell phone pictures, just hanging out and speaking with people before the show. There are people I've met who I rate higher purely as musicians, maybe. But there's no musician who I've been gladder to meet. He's just such a positive and articulate spokesman for unity and humanity. Chuck D is like Bono, only...wait, that's a mutually-insulting comparison on several levels. But he's in that range, as far as I'm concerned - just in terms of integrity and influence.

And then the show itself - well, okay. There were a couple points where it lagged. But like the man said! Tonight was a more casual vibe. Living-room. They took the time to introduce us to family members, for a little clowning around, for some amiable give-and-take with the audience. It was more relaxed than I expected it, but that wasn't a bad vibe at all to relax a bit between numbers. Because, as they rocked the many high points of the set - there was NOTHING relaxed about that attack!

PE came out ripping and running sans Flav, with Professor Griff backing Chuck D up on the first two numbers. (Griff was visibly not enjoying the trademark Santa Cruz cloud of pot smoke billowing in his direction. Poor guy! Later in the show he chided the woman primarily responsible, in the most stern and amusing fashion. It was a high point!) And then just when you were wondering, "hey, where's Flav?" - Bam! In your face!, he comes cavorting out from the sidelines and the whole experiment just ignites into phosphorous! I about lost my mind to see Chuck D and Flav shoulder to shoulder, Chuck funneling lyrics into the mic while Flav starts jerking with that crazy arm dance of his. It was awesome. Chuck just kept barreling around the stage, grabbing peoples' hands in the front row, booming into the mic; Griff and the S1Ws going into their synchronized military drill/dance routines; Flav was just lampin', no, more than just lampin' - he was col' lampin'. But you knew that. I never thought I'd see these guys live in my life. Never. I thought my chance was past. It was awesome. The energy these guys had, and I'm two rows back, I got the schpilkes because I'm standing right there...!

It's a mitzvah what they did, and they kept it up for two solid hours - with some quiet comfortable interludes, like I said before - but the songs were all business: "Night of the Living Baseheads", "Don't Believe the Hype", "Bring The Noise", "911 is a Joke", "Rebel Without a Pause", "Can't Truss It", "Welcome to the Terrordome", "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", "Shut 'Em Down", "Fight The Power" - aw, man. On and on. They had some new songs too, which went down WELL - particularly the topical "Son of a Bush" which was like catnip to this crowd! But I really dug current single "Harder Than You Think" as well. Soul music indeed.

Well I'm sold. I'm going to go pick up their album. I already got two t-shirts (a men's and a ladies') and a ball cap at the show. Least I could do!

You have to support the artists who you love. Especially when they come way out of their way to hit your po-dunk little home town, and then to put on a show like THAT.

I'm so happy about it. Thanks, guys.