While Boston does not have the nightlife of other large cities such as Philadelphia or New York City, the music scene that it boasts is quite impressive. Nearly every single venue in the area is extremely close to a subway station, and almost all shows end before the trains stop running, which makes travel relatively simple.
As a transplant from a small town in Eastern Washington, I’ve had the opportunity to see many artists that previously had only come to Seattle, a four hour drive from where I lived. And while acts like Sufjan Stevens, mewithoutYou, and KNOWER all had shows that I would rank higher than the Open Mike Eagle show with Gold Panda, this show has a spot in my mind as one of my favorite concert experiences of all time.
Open Mike Eagle is a rapper based in Los Angeles who grew up in Chicago. He was considered a pioneer in “art rap,” and raps about topics that range from racial stereotyping before a show starts to ripping his pants during a soundcheck in Detroit. He was featured in the LA Times after releasing his fourth album Dark Comedy, and has appeared as a featured artist in a video produced by Vox about rhyme sequence. He is my favorite rapper of all time, and when he announced that he was opening for Gold Panda at the Sinclair, I bought tickets immediately.
Gold Panda is a producer based out of the United Kingdom, and while he had produced the song Ziggy Starfish for Eagle, I had not heard much of his music before the show. I ended up liking his set, and appreciated his use of glitchy projections. However, I was here for Mike Eagle.
Before the show even began I got to meet Mike Eagle outside of the venue. He thanked me and the other people outside the venue that recognized him for coming. This set the stage for the rest of the set: which was an intense personal experience. While the venue didn’t fill out until Gold Panda began to play, the people there for Mike Eagle enjoyed a close and personal set. Along with making jokes with the crowd, mandatory dance breaks, and “The Advice Show”, a segment where he gave advice to an audience member that needed to design a staircase (his advice? “Take staircase design classes.”), the entire show was an amazing experience.
While there are a lot of acts that I would advise going to, the most important thing is to find artists that you like and go to their shows. It’s a great way to support their music, and when the artist isn’t as largely known, it can often be an intimate experience that is worth having. Open Mike Eagle is a rapper based in Los Angeles that grew up in Chicago. He was considered a pioneer in “art rap,” and raps about topics that range from racial stereotyping before a show starts and ripping his pants during a soundcheck in Detroit. He was featured in the LA Times after releasing his fourth album Dark Comedy and has appeared as a featured artist in a Vox video about rhyme sequence produced by Vox. He is my favorite rapper of all time, and when he announced that he was opening for Gold Panda at the Sinclair, I bought tickets immediately.
Gold Panda is a producer based out of the United Kingdom, and while he had produced the song Ziggy Starfish for Eagle, I had not heard much of his music before the show. I ended up liking his set, and appreciated his use of glitchy projections. However, I was here for Mike Eagle.
Before the show even began I got to quickly meet Mike Eagle outside of the venue. He thanked me for coming, along with the other people outside the venue that recognized him. This set the stage for the rest of the set: an intense personal experience. While the venue didn’t fill out until Gold Panda began to play, the people there for Mike Eagle enjoyed a close and personal set. Along with making jokes with the crowd, mandatory dance breaks, and “The Advice Show”, a segment where he gave advice to an audience member that needed to design a staircase (his advice? “Take staircase design classes.”) the entire show was an amazing experience.
While there are a lot of acts that I would advise going to, the one thing that is most important is to find artists that you like and go to their shows. It’s a great way to support their music, and when the artist isn’t as largely known, it can often be an intimate experience that is worth having.