MMG represenative Stalley made his way to Chicago this past Friday for a show at Reggie’s Rock Club.
The show had a jam-packed lineup full of Chicago artists opening for Stalley. Among the list of opening acts were DJ Stefan Ponce (Who served as DJ for everyone performing that night) ProbCause, Second City Citizens, Show You Suck, Chandler London, and Dave Coresh. Although performers had shorter sets due to the high number of acts, we were able to witness some pretty good performances throughout the night. Below we’ll recap 3 of the acts that we felt stole the show.
ProbCause
This was my second time seeing ProbCause perform; the first time I saw him perform was at the Chip Tha Ripper show last year at The Metro. His set from the previous tour was good back then, but this set at Reggie’s was a great improvement. He sure won new fans in the people standing next to me and I that night after impressing us with his skillful rhymes. He may be known for his fast-paced flow, but at this show he demonstrated that he can slow it down on command and he made it look effortless. He performed about 5 songs but his last song definitely was his best. The last song was a dub step track and his flow on it was ridiculous. I’m looking forward to checking out some of his future work.
You can follow him here and be sure to check the video of him performing below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBG0gQgNOjE&w=560&h=315]
Chandler London
To be completely honest, I had only heard Chandler London’s “Stephanie” and “Skitzometric” prior to seeing him perform live and that was enough to make me look forward to seeing how well he would do on stage and what else Chandler has under his sleeves. Chandler hit the stage after ProbCause and had some pretty crazy energy on stage right from the start. He went through about 4 songs before performing his signature track, “Stephanie.” As soon as it started started playing, the crowd reacted with the same burst of energy that Chandler is known for. Fans and newcomers alike were singing along with Chandler’s every word when the chorus came and he was feeding off of the crowd’s vibe. This was, by far, my favorite performance of the night.
Be sure to follow Chandler London on twitter and check his performance of “Stephanie” below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z_qpe7Z4Tg&w=560&h=315]
Dave Coresh
The last opening act of the night was Dave Coresh. This was my second time seeing him perform. I believe I saw him at the Yelawolf show last year and if I remember correctly, this took place at Reggie’s as well. His performance back then only consisted of himself and a DJ, but on this night he had a live band perform with him on stage. Including a live band really added a whole lot more substance to his show this time around. That previous show with just a DJ was pretty good, but his performance with a band had the crowd rocking like I had not seen before. Just like he did the last time around, Coresh singled out random people in the crowd who either weren’t into the show or those who preferred to be on their phone while he was performing. I think that’s a great part of his show because those who are in the pit should be there to witness live music and enjoy the show, not to lose themselves in the cyber world. Demanding these people’s attention is the least an artist can ask for and it is definitely not uncalled for. Coresh wound up going over his set time but, thankfully, no one was given a reason to complain about it.
Follow Dave Coresh on twitter and check him performing in the video below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTXO6zxu6qQ&w=560&h=315]
And now, on to the person everyone paid to see… Stalley!
Since we’re on an “honesty roll,” I must admit that I had not really listened to any of Stalley’s music before the night of the show. With that being said, he really put on a great show. Stalley took the stage with his DJ but no hype man. Simple, to the point, but definitely not lacking the vibrant energy that Hip Hop delivers. The crowd seemed to get louder song after song and they really seemed to enjoy the energy the night was filled with by rapping along with Stalley and keeping up with him word for word. He performed a good number of songs and had the crowd very entertained throughout his entire set. The crowd got really loud when Stalley went off stage that he came back for an encore performance. I suppose people weren’t expecting him to come back since many began walking out until the DJ said he would come back. And the ruckus continued.
After seeing him perform in person, I will definitely be checking out some more of his projects and hopefully next time he’s back in Chicago I’ll be out there rapping every word with the rest of the crowd.
Check out Stalley performing at Reggie’s in the video below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syv7Dy15BtE&w=560&h=315]
