Though it was Spose's first big show locally since the "I'm Awesome" craze died down, Saturday night was as much about showcasing Spose's P.Dank label as it was debuting songs from his new We Smoked It All, Vol. 2. It may be that Educated Advocates suffered a bit from this rarity in hip-hop shows: It actually started on time, so the crowd was thin, making it hard for the very active collective to get the hall buzzing.
The delightfully raunchy Dr. Astronaut caught the sweet spot, though. As the majority of maybe 300 people filed in, there he was on stage in full lab coat and stethoscope rhyming about vaginas (his favorite topic) while accompanied on stage by the "Pocket Pussies," none other than backing singers/go-go dancers Holly Nunan and Jamie Colpoys, decked out in sleek mini-skirts and full green body paint and alien-ears headbands. Bespectacled and perfectly pale, the whole thing would have fallen apart if Doc Astro hadn't completely nailed the delivery, whether behind just a mic or accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.
There were times I was doubled over laughing.
He returned later in the guise of "Stiky-1" to serve as hype man for Cam Groves, who, honestly, looks more at home as Spose's hype man than when fronting his own songs (though he strikes quite a figure in a purple wolf T-shirt and pure-white winter hat). When Spose and Groves team, songs can get pretty damn electric, the pair of them pogoing around the stage in a manner that could be choreographed but at least appears completely in the moment. Best was when Spose brought out a full band, playing acoustic himself for the terrific "Pop Song," and shifting to an electric for a couple other tracks.
As is common in hip-hop, a couple of the non-band songs, like "Fuck It," cut short or petered out, without crisply arranged endings, leaving Spose or Groves to amp the crowd with stage banter, but when the black balloons dropped at the show's finish it was a punctuation no one could miss.
