It was an interesting night of music at the Knitting Factory in NYC on this Saturday night. Upstairs there raged the hardcore punk of Step 2 Far, while the Tap Room sported a sold-out hip-hop/funk show. First up was Mongoose, who ranged all over the linguistic map, preaching about history, slavery and Frederick Douglas before dropping some Space Invader beats to get in a groove where “Long Legs/Short Skirts/Tube Top Shirts” were all the rage.
This was the perfect send-off, because Kats was up next and brought the full on party to the sold-out room. Along with DJ SmutVillain and FolkLore, Kats got everyone bobbing and weaving with tunes like “Kats the Musical” and “Summertime,” which speeds up the Mungo Jerry tune (you know the one) into a head bouncing, sweating ruckus. By this time it was hot indeed as shirt’s got waved like helicopters and a parade of microphone holders took to the stage, Domer, Dyalekt and Homeboy Sandmen joined the show and the 5 MC’s were killing it on “It’s a House Party, Dummy” as the all too short half hour set ended admits grinding and making out on the dance floor from the crowd, absolutely jumping.
Next was a bizarre interlude with an acoustic singer songwriter Jewish McFly, who with a name like that you would expect to be down right goofy, and he was. Black Dragon closed the night, a funk band with headbands galore a few MC’s and even a mandolin. At this point their energy certainly outweighed their chops, but the mood was set early, straight up party, and the summertime theme kept reoccurring this night as the college aged crowd soaked up the simple rhymes and rhythms while getting down and loose straight into morning.
Mongoose:
http://www.myspace.com/midwestmongoose
Kats:
http://www.myspace.com/katsthemusical
Black Dragon:
http://www.myspace.com/funkybrothersinc
