Just got back from seeing Lupe Fiasco at Showbox here in Seattle. Here’s how it went down:

The night began arriving to the Showbox an hour before doors, at 7 PM. At the time I thought my spot in line, which was around the corner, was a bad one, but over the course of the next hour the line stretched almost a block to 2nd Avenue. Shortly thereafter, a scalper (who accused me of being a scalper 0_o) approached me to buy my extra ticket. After a couple minutes of bargaining, I sold it to him for $40 (original cost: $20), so I flipped a nice $20 profit. Then after seemed 4 hours, the doors open at 8:15. The Showbox is a small venue, with a general admission standing area in front of the stage, and a 21 and over bar in back. Finally after another long wait, the opening act, Optimas came on at around 9:30. They are a band that appears like a “normal” rock band at first, until the Emcee and his hypeman (who looked like Justin Guarini) came on stage. The emcee was a talented rapper, but his NSYNC moves he did took away from his performance (he must have forgotten who he was performing for: rap fans).

And finally at around 10:30, Lupe came on, proceeded by his band (which includes Beatdown on drums, who Fort Minor fans will remember was Mike’s drummer on the Fort Minor tours). Lupe narrated the show like he was showing us around Chicago, starting with Food & Liquor, and ending with The Cool. Read the rest of this entry »

My copy of Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool arrived today! Got a sweet deal from Amazon.com, only $10! The album is amazing, definitely one of the best hiphop albums to come out this year. Support real hiphop and cop it! Or at least do what I did, and go to his show! I just bought two tickets to see him live in Seattle at the Showbox on January 11th. As KRS-One said,

I write with a free hand, I write with a purpose
If you bought the CD, thanks for the purchase
If you downloaded the album, then come to the concert
Don’t sit in front of the computer till your eyes hurt

Here’s my picture with Lupe’s two classics, Food & Liquor and The Cool, that I sent to the Femme Fiascos.

-J

As the owner of a popular Linkin Park fan site, and an active member of many Linkin Park online communities, including the official Linkin Park and Linkin Park Underground message boards, lately I have noticed and experienced a growing unhappiness in the service and customer support that Linkin Park fans have (not) been receiving from the two companies that Linkin Park contracts to provide us with merchandise, BandMerch, and the online pay-to-join fan club, LPUnderground, run by Sparkart, as well as Linkin Park’s record label, Warner Brothers. For those of you who are not familiar, BandMerch was started by Don Delson, the father of Brad Delson, the lead guitarist for the band. Originally created just for Linkin Park, it now serves dozens of different band’s merchandising needs. The Linkin Park Underground was created as the official fan club for Linkin Park, and is managed by the flash wizards at Sparkart.

This year, the trouble first started for many when Read the rest of this entry »