Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2011, Blaðsíða 24

24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2011 You should have seen Sage's opener, B.Dolan. He looks EXACTLY
like Sage. When the two appeared on stage together, it looked like
some wrestling tag team getting in gear!
Bankastræti
Læ
kja
rg
at
a
Austurstræti
HafnarstrætiAð
al
st
ræ
ti
Geirsgata
Harpa
Tryggvagata
G
ar
ða
st
ræ
ti
Find us at Tryggvagata 11, 101 Reykjavík
EXPERIENCE
THE FORCE
OF NATURE
Our two excellent films on eruptions
in Iceland start on the hour every hour.
The films are shown in english
except at 09:00 and 21:00 when
they are in german.
Volcano House also has an excellent
café, Icelandic design shop and booking
service for travels within Iceland.
Opening hours: 8:30 - 23:00
www.volcanohouse.is
Sage Francis Struck A Nerve In The Listenership
Music | Live
Sage Francis ended his show at
Sódóma Reykjavík last Saturday
rapping while he surfed the crowd,
lying on his back, supported by doz-
ens of arms, with a motionless Sage
suspended in the air, words ema-
nating from his unseen mouth. It
was a triumphant end to a wonder-
ful show. Every line he said hit the
target, every beat moved through
the crowd like a wave on the ocean
surface.
The first time I saw Sage Francis in the
flesh was in 2001 and he was pressing
himself against a window yelling: "Per-
form for me!" I was sitting inside, be-
hind a typewriter, for reasons too sec-
ondary to this review to recount. Sadly
enough I did not perform for him, which
would have made for a better story.
Francis was fresh out of a radio inter-
view where he had shocked Iceland's
shlockiest shock jocks by giving shout
outs to "all my inner child molesters."
This was in 2001. I did not know who
he was at the time, beyond him being a
rapper that friends of mine really liked.
He started his show last Saturday by
introducing himself: "I'm Sage Francis,
I'm in Iceland to fuck your kids." Some
things never change.
Sage Francis' music did not enter my
consciousness until October that same
year when ‘Makeshift Patriot’ hit the in-
ternet. It was the first time I had heard
someone articulate my own response to
the destruction of the World Trade Cen-
ter. Shock and sorrow at the horror and
tragedy, mixed with a growing fear that
the world was turning towards a period
war and repression. I downloaded as
much as I could and procured a copy of
his ‘Sick Of Waging War’ album.
He came back to Iceland in 2002.
But I did not see Sage Francis perform.
His show was on the same night as a
Godspeed You! Black Emperor concert,
my other overriding musical obsession
of the time. For me it was like having
to pick between The Beatles and Elvis.
I went with Godspeed reasoning that
it was more likely that I would have an
opportunity to see Sage Francis in the
near future. I ended up seeing them
three times in the next calendar year.
Last Saturday's gig, a decade later,
was the first time I saw Sage Francis
rap. It lived up to the wait. A show of
beauty and power. Every head nod-
ding in rhythm, facing Sage. Watching
the crowd was like seeing a heart valve
contract and open.
This was my first time seeing Sage
Francis rap, but not the first time I saw
him perform. In 2002 I went to Hamp-
shire College in Massachusetts as an
exchange student. That fall there was
a huge spoken word poetry festival at
the school and Sage Francis performed.
The stage was out on a huge lawn in
front of the library and the whole fes-
tival remains a beautiful, diamond-cut
memory in my head. I lived in Provi-
dence, Rhode Island for five years,
where he is from, and I saw him per-
form poetry a few times. The spoken
word style sometimes comes through
in Sage Francis’ hip hop, and he has
even put some poems on his records.
He did ‘Hopeless’ off ‘Personal Jour-
nals’ and the second to last thing he did
was a new spoken word poem about his
recent experience of working with HIV
infected kids in South Africa.
I should take a moment to men-
tion B. Dolan, who opened up for Sage
Francis. I would mention first act Ha
Why too, but sadly I did not arrive early
enough. B. Dolan, also from Rhode Is-
land, also making a name for himself
in the spoken word scene around the
turn of the century, put on a great show.
He wore a hangman's noose like a tie
and American flag sunglasses while
rapping about topics ranging from
the death of Ol' Dirty Bastard to Joan
of Arc (who had a dildo named Jesus
and wondered why Christ never came).
He was not the headline attraction but
he won the crowd over quickly, which
formed into a semicircle with him at the
centre, everyone waving in rhythmic
unison like a time-lapse flower.
Sage Francis had no need to win the
crowd over. Two thirds of the audience
rapped along with him on every song
(excepting the new ones). The rest,
those who were not already true believ-
ers, fell in with majority. People listened
with reverence. Those unfamiliar ap-
preciating a new voice. The true believ-
ers feeling like they were at the source
of the words they had been listening to
for years. A decade ago Sage Francis
had a reputation for being a wild man.
Now he's calmed down. During last
Saturday's show he talked about how
he used to fizzing with energy. Hip hop,
breakdancing, graffiti coursing through
his veins. But then he said: "Do you
know what I think is more beautiful
than graffiti? Nature." Some things do
change.
After Sage Francis had performed
the track ‘Makeshift Patriot’, my friend
leaned over to me and said: "Every sin-
gle word on that song is just right. They
just are right where they should be."
Throughout his career Sage Francis
has made a habit of putting words right
where they should be. He did not put a
word wrong at Saturday's concert.
KÁRI TULINIUS
HöSSI
Music | Reviews
The latest offering from the former Kri-
tikal Mazz frontman and Ciphah alias
sees him rapping in English, which is
always going to be a slight risk when
it’s your second language, moreso
than with regular ‘singing.’ And overall
he does a decent job of it, leaning
towards a more socially conscious
style of hip hop not often examined by
his Icelandic contemporaries.
However the music doesn’t quite
match his ambitions. Most of the
tracks contain mid-tempo, simplis-
tic 4X4 beats that rather stunts the
flow of Úlfur’s wordplay and makes
the album feel a bit dated (did I hear
him say “now it’s 2003” on the track
‘Tomorrow’?).
‘Human Error’ is a so-so album that
does have the advantage of being free
to download from his Bandcamp page.
OK, you could pay 5 Euros to get it via
Gogoyoko, but knowing human nature
like I do, why would you want to do
that?
- BOB CLUNESS
Úlfur Kolka
Human Error
www.ulfurkolka.bandcamp.com
Middle of the road Hip Hop