Home to Kelsey, the gracious hostess of our astro-traveling, Los Gatos was a surprisingly green and homey feeling city that felt like a Eugene or Bend, Oregon that had just hit the lotto. Eating at the local Italian eatery that employed our hostess, we got taste of the night life of Los Gatos after wandering the parks and streets for awhile prior to our meal. To end the night we watched some 'Life' (narrated by David Attenborough, none of that Oprah bullshit) to prepare us for our SF Zoo excursion the next day.
Officially kicking off our San Francisco trip, the Zoo naturally felt like the place for us animals to go wild.
Starting strong, this Gorilla set an unattainably high standard for the Zoo as he had gathered a crowd of what looked like aspiring/student photographers through his posing and displays. Grinning, striking poses of alternating angles and even waving, the primate clearly knew the drill and was really showing out for the crowd of budding photographers.
Staying in Africa for awhile, we meandered through the Pride Land exhibits and saw the sights. Due to my
From left to right: Morgan, Tiger, Robbie
Sleepy Otters
This thing
The saddest Seal
Lurk
???
'Roos
The ugliest bird
The ugliest bear
Afterward, we took a drive to Haight area for some shopping and eats.
Wouldn't you know it we got the first spot on Bakers st.
Hitting up True, Adidas, HUF, RVCA and The Hundreds store (which was a bit of a disappointment, it was way to dark in there) I managed to keep my spending under control and walked away with two pairs of socks and a shirt that didn't leave me bummy.
Finishing off a full day, we headed back to Los Gatos to recharge for the main event: Rock the Bells.
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Waking nice and early to ensure a good spot in line for security (twitter was blowing up the day before about how long LA security took) we started the day off witha bakery n coffee stop.
Arriving in Shoreline, the first thing I noticed about the venue was its bottleneck-layout. One entrance and one exit. While I had expected it to be cluster fuck both ways regardless of the layout due to the mere size of the event, (I heard someone say there were around 20,000 in attendance) seeing this made me cringe at the thought of the drive out awaiting us. However, after all was said and done, both arrival and departure was relatively painless and efficient.
Heading to side stage first I ended up missing the first act, Big Sean, due to security (there were no cameras of professional quality allowed and I was tryin to sneak one in to set A-ton up as the Goliath it should be in the blogosphere) but the second act, an artist by the name of Yelawolf whom I had never heard before was surprisingly ill.
Yelawolf Ft Bun B - Good To Go
Hailing from Alabama, Yelawolf raps like spastic glock on semi. Frantic but calculated, his flow barrages the senses in flurries. Quickly winning me over, Yelawolf put on an excellent show with stand out soungs including "Good to Go" and "Box Chevy." I'm not sure which 'part' it was, but the below version was the best available on youtubes.
Yelawolf Feat. Rittz - Box Chevy Pt 3
Leaving Yelawolf a bit early to hit up the main stage where The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, Rick tha Ruler's debut album, was about to be performed in its entirety; I anxiously found a spot to view what I thought would be one of the best performances at Rock the Bells.
Slick Rick - The Ruler's Back
Hugely disappointing, Rick has either definitely seen better days or I haven't heard anything about his shows for a reason. Literally not moving at all, Slick's stage presence was that of a mic tester or nervous 4th grader. OK, maybe not nervous, but stationary in every sense of the word. Due to the smooth, fluidic quality of his story-driven raps, I just assumed he would be gliding back and forth across the stage and bopping along to his bubbly, vivid raps. This was not the case at all. Disappointed, I returned to the side stage to catch the infamous...
Slick Rick-Lick The Balls
ILL BILL & Dj Muggs. One of my favorite Dj's, Muggs's sets were efin clean an precise. Unfortunately I failed to take a single picture.
DJ MUGGS vs ILL BILL - Cult Assassin
DJ Muggs vs Ill Bill - Secrets Worth Dying For (Feat. Chace Infinite)
Grimey like a wound filled with dirt and mean as hell, I thought I had heard the hardest until Jedi Mind Tricks took the stage...
Jus Allah after someone threw a water bottle at him. I was surprised he didn't hop off stage right there an get physical.
Jedi Mind Tricks - Heavenly Divine
Powerful, raw, and just plain filthy, Vinnie Paz, Jus Allah, and Stoupe stomped across the stage like rap-dementors sucking the souls from heads in the crowd to regurgitate them with flame back upon us. One of the top shows, "Blood in Blood Out" became an infectious sing-along as the crowd echoed the beat.
Jedi Mind Tricks - Blood in blood out
No stranger to the stage, Brother Ali took over next.
Brother Ali - Truth is
Brother Ali - Take Me Home
He did an sick flow with his Dj, Dj Snuggles, beat boxing. I had seen it before from his performances at Sasquatch but was much closer to this one making it that much better.
Up next was another raw rhymer whom you may have heard of:
Immortal Technique
Hailed "one of this generations truest revolutionary artists" by an elderly lady upwards of 50 squiring her way to the front (using "I'm old!" as her defense as she pushed passed people who had arrived early just to get a good spot"), Technique did not disappoint.
Immortal Technique - Point of No Return
Immortal Technique- Peruvian Cocaine
Midway through his set, he stopped the crowd to have a moment of silence for all third world nations in need of revolution and all in Haiti who needed help and aid... and that's when some jackass threw a water bottle at one of his crew members.
It was aimed at the big dude in the white shirt dead center of the above picture and before the bottle had even hit the ground the dude left the stage with sinister intent. Luckily for the ass hat that threw it, security
After I.T., there was a calm over the crowd as it had gotten hot and people's energy was waning. With bottled water at 4.50$ a pop, I only drank when absolutely necessary.
Amping the energy right back up for the next act, 9th Wonder came out tossing green and black LRG snap-back's into the crowd. Throwing at least two dozen of each color, the crowds attention was instantly revived as Murs strutted on stage and 9th took the wheels of steel.
Murs & 9th Wonder I Used To Love Her
Murs - 3:16 Pt.2
Oh, and did I mention 9th was rippin' it as well?
Murs - Badman
Tearing myself away from Murs and 9th to miss Wiz Khalifa, I made the worst decision of the day by heading over to see Tribe Called Quest on the main stage. But wait, how could leaving practically any show with the promise of seeing the timeless Tribe be a bad choice? Well I'll tell you: When Tribe decides not to play on schedule, moves Lauryn Hill to their time slot (after a 40 minute delay) and I, in the process of waiting, start to get heat stroke from all the sun; all of this because the artist (Wiz Khalifa) I had a front row spot at was drawing in the majority of the crowd so ATCQ didn't want to divide peoples attention.
With all eyes on main stage (I missed the Street Sweeper Social Club on the side stage while waiting for Tribe and Seeing L.Hill as well), Tribe finally made their appearance.
Tip's a lot shorter looking down from up in the nose bleeds.
But Busta's voice and stage presence make distance unnoticed when he takes the stage.
A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario (ft. Busta Rhymes)
ATCQ - Award Tour
With the day light fading fast and my camera's battery following suit, pictures of the Wu and Snoop performances are turrable. Both put on incredible shows, and both tore the place out as hip hop legends did what they do best right before my eyes.
Seeing both 36th Chambers and Doggystyle played back to back was an event that I cannot describe in words. In fact, I won't even do them the injustice of throwing up youtube vids so you can better idealize the experience with your own imagination.
All I can say is, I can't wait for Rock The Bell's 2012.
From left to right: Morgan, Kelsey, Robbie, Myself.
A-ton out.
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