Cadence Weapon And Buck 65 Battle The Hall

The Music Hall

Toronto, ON

on Apr 25 2008

Noah Love (CHARTattack)

04/28/2008 3:00pm

Something funny happened leading up to Friday night's hip-hop double-bill. Every time anybody was told that Buck 65 and Cadence Weapon were performing at The Music Hall, the immediate response was, "Really?" Standing in the building before the latter hit the stage, I found myself wondering the same thing. Besides the massive cityscape backdrop, there's practically no reason that this bill should have been in this room. Lucky for both Rollie Pemberton and Rich Terfry, the small but devoted crowd couldn't have cared less.

Cadence Weapon immediately tossed away the formality of the setting by urging everyone to move up to the stage. Unlike most times when this happens at a club and some people move awkwardly forward, most of this crowd quickly moved up willingly. They also pumped their fists and clapped along with every one of Pemberton's cues. In a weird way, the beat-heavy material from Pemberton's latest release Afterparty Babies was actually a solid match for the cavernous theatre. With DJ Weasel mixing in a solid dose of Breaking Kayfabe's glitchy gems, Cadence Weapon brought an energy to the crowd that Buck 65 couldn't duplicate.

That's strange, because people ate up Buck's set. But Terfry doesn't engage the audience the same way as Pemberton. Through a set that mostly relied on Situation material, Buck used his expedient flow and synchronized video background to keep people engaged. He told his crusty old man stories and burned through "Wicked And Weird" a cappella to wild cheers, but most of the crowd looked as though they were waiting for a cue to completely explode but it never came.

The performances, especially those of "Indestructible Sam," "The Centaur" and closer "463" were note-perfect, and Buck's announcement that a new album was finished and on the way soon definitely sparked enthusiasm. But, it was hard to shake the feeling that something was missing. I think it's that no matter how much you dress up a huge stage, it still seems a little bare if only two people are on it.