GZA @ The Fox (Boulder), 04/30/08

Fifteen minutes after some local rap outfit had finished being insincere and awkward, GZA and his outfit entered a side door and headed down some steps backstage. Over the course of the next forty-five minutes, they were followed down by:

1) Five or six girls. I don’t know where they came from, but I think it was the crowd.
2) The stage manager. She would go up and down those stairs, with increasing frequency, five or six times before 1.5 members of Wu-Tang took the stage. The only person who made the trip more was…
3) A roadie, or possibly someone working for the Fox in the sound department, who must have gone up and down those stairs a dozen times. I began to feel hostile towards him after about half an hour of horrific DJ-ing (Nelly? Fiddy? That freakin’ “Jump Around” song?), because every time I saw his shadow it might have been GZA.
4) More random girls. Some of the first group was back now, talking to a bouncer.
5) The largest pizza I have ever seen. I’d estimate that it was four feet in diameter.

And finally, more than three hours after the doors had opened, GZA stepped nonchalantly up to a mic and asked if it was his. A couple hundred white people threw up Wu signs and yelled assurances that it was.

It’s a Wu-Tang calling card, this leisurely approach to performance, where every show is casual (insert day of the week) at the (insert venue) in (insert city). It’s still kind of annoying. Further, if his behavior for the rest of the night is any indication, it’s not that GZA doesn’t care or lacks respect for his fans. No, he stayed, once the house lights had come up and the cloud of pot smoke had settled, until every kid with an ironed-flat brim baseball hat had an autograph. So why the pre-show backstage antics? No matter – just make sure, if you must go to a GZA show on time, that you come prepared to entertain yourself for a while.

But don’t let that keep you away altogether. A setlist featuring highly serviceable reproductions of the majority of Liquid Swords and a couple Wu-Tang classics was enough to make me feel comfortable with the price of admission. But you don’t really go to a hip-hop show for the music – a DJ is simply playing half the song from a record and the other half can never be as discernible as it is in the studio – so what really matters is the persona. After all, GZA is not about to deal cocaine, which means his lyrics (like most rappers – don’t let that stray felony fool you) come from the perspective of a caricature, some combination of his past and gangster fantasy. And there he was, live in the flesh, approachable, smoking a joint someone threw onstage, fist pounding the dudes crammed against the stage, shuffling back and forth, close enough to touch, sharp and wearing his titanic reputation with awareness but no pretense.

Joining him onstage was Killah Priest, who has been appearing alongside the Genius since the mid-90s. He was a passable placeholder for the missing Clan members when needed, and his own verses were good enough to bridge between GZA’s musings. He also hauled some mortified girl onstage, who danced for a little while and then headed back into the crowd. Later, Priest walked over and talked to her for a little while, probably to extend a post-show invitation for debauchery.

I’ve always loved Liquid Swords – that hasn’t changed. It wasn’t the most Earth-shattering concert I’ve ever seen but it was far from the worst and I’d probably see him again, under the right circumstances (with a book in hand for the wait). But the real question, the thing I’ll take away from the night, is: How can I get a four-foot pizza delivered to my work?











[photos and review by Kiernan Maletsky]