Live And In The Flesh
Astronautalis / Ill Bill - May 27 & 28, 2010
A Ritual Nightclub doubleheader, you couldn't ask for a better venue for this to happen in! Just a quick drive into the city of Ottawa makes this doubleheader a lot easier to pull off as opposed to Toronto one night, and Québec City the next, which I would decide to take on a few years later.
Two months earlier we had attended a P.O.S. show in Montréal while he was out on his Every Never Is Now Tour, and we were introduced to a new artist by the name of Astronautalis. We weren't familiar with him at the time, and as soon as his set had finished he had won us over as fans forever. This guy had come out of nowhere and was simply amazing with his flow, delivery, and overall style. His wordsmithing was incredible and you could feel a bit of a Tom Waits vibe. The shows that you attend where you are blown away by the openers are usually the beginning of something pretty special.
Not long after our introduction to Astronautalis, we heard that he had announced a stop at Ritual while he would be out touring on his own. It was a nice surprise to have him come through. The night of the show finally came around and we made our way down to the venue. To kill some time before the show we headed around the corner to grab a few drinks at a pub. After a pint or two out on the patio we decided to make our way into the venue. We were getting pretty familiar with the place by now as we were just here for the Sage Francis/B. Dolan show two weeks prior. We knew where the best place was to stand and take advantage of the small club atmosphere. Nothing compares to a connection at a show where you are mere feet away from the musicians. Waiting around for the show to begin we realized just how underground Astronautalis really was. Given it's Ottawa we weren't surprised at the low turnout, however I was a bit disappointed. I had felt that out of anyone, this guy deserved to be selling out shows night after night because of the true talent that he possessed. All in due time I suppose. We were actually a bit excited at the fact that he would be coming out to play a show to a crowd of about two or three dozen of us, you can't get anymore intimate than that!
He took to the stage as we were all cheering him on to show him our support. He made a few jokes about the turnout and then proceeded into his set without any hesitation at all. Astronautalis would be just as incredible the second time seeing him. Flowing seamlessly from one song into the next. He had been tearing it up in there as if it was a sellout crowd. I had remembered him performing an amazing freestyle at the Montréal gig, and decided to bring my camera along just for this occasion; to see if I could capture the Ottawa night's freestyle. Low and behold he gets to the point within his set where he requests a few ideas from the audience, and then without any effort at all he would be able to work everything into a freestyle. It was quite the flex of skill. We were even able to get a few of our own ideas thrown into his freestyle which was awesome.
After he had finished up his set he headed over to the merch booth to talk it up with any of us that wanted to stick around after the show. We all made our way over to show our support and thank him for even bothering to make his way up to the city of Ottawa. We apologized for the poor turnout and then he would begin to explain to us how much of a hassle it had been for him at the border coming across for his tour. It seemed like an economic disaster due to all of the fees and duty payments that these up-and-coming artists like himself had to endure to tour north of the border at all. We took it upon ourselves to give him as much as we could seeing as how there weren't a whole lot of others that had come out that night. CD's, vinyl, shirts, anything he had for sale we bought it up. Looking forward to his next Canadian run, whether he makes his way back through Ottawa or not, I will be making damn sure to catch him wherever I can. I don't think I could ever pass up another opportunity to witness the pure talent of Astronautalis again.
Back down to Ottawa we go. The fourty-five minute drive to downtown is just long enough to get us pumped up for the show. We got the car parked and headed over to the lineup that was already forming to get in. Ill Bill is a legend in the Underground Hip Hop scene and he was bringing out all of the gangstas near and far! We were let into Ritual and it wasn't long before the venue was beginning to fill in, things were already getting tight in there and the show hadn't even begun. We situated ourselves over in our usual spot just at the end of the bar about seven or eight feet away from the stage.
Ill Bill took to the stage and Ritual erupted! I don't think we had ever seen this venue so packed, and going so wild! This night's crowd was in complete contrast with the Astronautalis show the night before. Everyone was losing their minds as Ill Bill was going off hard and he wasn't holding back at all. Track after track he was just killing his set reaching back through his back catalogue even busting out some of his classic Non Phixion material. You could hear the experienced flow throughout his rhymes as he destroyed one song after the next. Straight out of Queens, New York, Ill Bill has been tearing up the Underground since 1991 and you could tell! You could just feel the presence of a Hip Hop legend in the building that night, definitely one of those shows that you could not miss.
After all was said and done this was no doubt one of the heaviest Hip Hop shows I had ever been to. Ill Bill busted it all out that night down in Ritual. It was interesting to see these two shows back to back, and appreciate them for two totally different reasons, and yet have them both be involved in that same scene. It just goes to show how diverse it truly is, and how there is something out there for just about everyone if you know where to look for it. Kapacity Entertainment and Ritual Nightclub seem to have their fingers on the pulse.