Words By: Adamandia Coumbos
Photos By: Brendan Lee
Thursday February 7, 2013 – I’ve never seen Zion I live before and boy, (I know I say this a lot, but I mean it) they sure didn’t disappoint. Opening the show was Vancouver based Wilderness Crew followed by A-1.
Wilderness Crew put on a pretty good show. They managed to read the crowd well and kept everyone entertained and energized. A-1 though, was a different story. I felt like the focus was lost when A-1 came onstage. Even with songs like Winning and Living The Dream, his performance was less engaging and there were times when I could hear the conversations around me more clearly than his performance because the audience just wasn’t feeling his set. That being said, the young mc displayed great lyricism and passion on the mic.
Anyways, after watching A-1 my expectations for the show had sunk. Luckily Zumbi and Amp Live work well together as a duo; they feed off each other’s energy which in turn keeps the crowd engaged and hyped the entire night. They have good beats, better rhymes and to top it all off they’re humble and appreciative of their fans. It seemed like they were surprised to see the venue as packed as it was and they kept thanking everyone for coming out.
They played a lot of their newer stuff – their most recent album being ShadowBoxing which came out last fall – and I enjoyed it, but I’m definitely a fan of some of their older work. One of my favourite parts of the night was when they dropped Rocket Man and of course I lost my head during Don’t Lose Your Head (ha..ha..ha). A couple other notable older songs the Oakland duo played were Silly Puddy, and the west coast anthems The Bay, and Coastin’. Overall, a really dope show by this highly talented duo; I recommend checking them out live if you get a chance.
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