Words By: Michelle Swami
Photos By: Brendan Lee
All Breath, All Meth
Thursday, March 7 – Wu-Tang have had a cult following since their inception in the early 90s. Music fans of young and old, hipsters to hip-hop heads love the clan from Stanten Island (or the slums of Shaolin). With their logo on everything from coffee cups, to socks it’s no surprise to enter the Commodore and see that half an hour after doors opening, all the Wu-Tang merchandise actually sold out.
After opening sets from locals City Real, Son Real, the W’s were up and ready to go. “Can we take it back to the 90’s one time?” said Method Man to a sold out Commodore crowd most of which were a mixture of people around during their heyday and people actually born in the 90’s. After saying that, he broke into ‘Release Yo Delf‘, a song which at 18 years old, got the crowd pumped and nostalgic. And yes, brought the crowd back to the 90s.
With a set packed with hits such as, ‘M-E-T-H-O-D Man‘, ‘Bring Tha Pain‘ and ‘Da Rockwilder‘ (complete with chants of Wu-Tang and Wuuuuu!), the Wu-Tang resident jokster kept the crowd entertained. Plenty of blunts were passed around, most ended up between the lips of either Method Man or his entourage and Mr. Meth stage dove between songs keeping the crowd on their feet. The crowd loved him and he was loving the crowd with no shortage of expressing his love for Vancouver. Typical shout outs to Vancity weed (obligatory): “Vancouver, I love your weed and I love your style”. To quips about the Canucks: “I love Vancouver, I even got love for the Canucks”. At one point, Meth did what Jesus would and walked amongst the crowd without falling. Pretty good for a crowd that was probably high or at least, feeling a contact high.
“Let’s pretend like it’s the 90’s” and chants of “Def! Jam!” (when was the last time you heard that?) were started by Meth before breaking into ‘Method Man II‘, sparking up feelings of nostalgia amongst the crowd again. After a set packed full of hits from his 20+year career, Method Man explains to the crowd that the song he is playing next is an new one and will get you to dance: “Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake up in this bitch”. “Fall Out” was the tune – a very modern sounding song that does sound like something out of a Breezy discography, although, Method Man’s dancing skills could use a little bit of tuning.
Despite his rusty moves, the crowd was still entranced. Method Man felt the love too, saying that he has “been at it for twenty years and I still get this reaction”. “Wu-Tang! Wu-Tang!” said the crowd back before Meth stopped the crowd saying he had an experiment. Keeping with the nostalgia theme, he said he would get everyone involved playing old records and seeing the crowds reaction. That’s right, records. And boy did they get a reaction. With non-stop hit after hits with songs like ‘CREAM‘ and ‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothin to Fuck Wit,’ the crowd had no trouble rapping along to the point where the man beside me whispered in my ear that he had lost his voice just now from yelling the words. There were points where all I could hear was the crowd rapping along in unison. Incredible.
After that bit of Wu hits, a chant of “ODB! ODB!” started with the crowd wanting to hear Method Man’s take on his late band member’s songs. Method Man and his entourage did not dissappoint, spitting out a impressive version of ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya‘ (which Method Man saying Vancouver had the best reaction to it out of all the cities he’s played it in) with the crowd going completely mental and not stopping there, playing an impeccable cover of ‘Brooklyn Zoo‘ which he did, in his words, “Alcapulco”.
“Worth the bullshit that I had to endure at the border. They weren’t dicks like I thought they would be.” said Method Man before leaving the stage for a quick breather.
Approximately 2 minutes later Method Man came back on stage saying “I feel so good, I don’t want to go home tonight. How many people want an encore?” The crowd roared and off he went into a brief, yet awesome rendition of ‘Gravel Pit’ capping off an already Wu-Tang packed set list.
So, 20 years later Method Man is still the same man we first listened to all those years ago. The same joker, not to mention the same energy and rhymes that made us fall in love with them all those years ago. Oh, sweet, nostalgia….
