Wu Tang Clan at the Congress Theater

I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of live hip-hop. When I began attending concerts in the 1980s, I imbibed a steady diet of live punk, prog rock and jazz and have always had a bias against the use of recorded music in concerts. In my mind a concert has always involved someone singing or playing an instrument without any prerecorded “help”. However, after seeing Wu Tang Clan’s excellent performance on January 8 I think that I am going to have to broaden my outlook a bit.

The concert was held in the Congress Theater, a grimy former movie palace which was built in the 1920s and does not appear to have been cleaned since the advent of sound film. This is probably why the management never turned the lights on even after the show was over. The venue has a post-apocalyptic feel which reminded me of the theater in “Escape from New York”. This makes it the perfect place to see rappers who originally took much of their inspiration from watching 1970s kung-fu films in Manhattan grindhouses. As we waited outside in the cold, the thing that impressed me the most about the audience was its diversity (at least in terms of age and race if not gender) I saw several other forty year olds as well as some kids who were probably not born yet when Wu Tang released Enter the Wu Tang. Even the couple in line in front of us were speaking Dutch.

The show began with Que Billah a local rapper backed up by the Shocking Truth Band and a dj His energetic set consisted mainly of covers of older rap tunes by Nas and De La Soul and a few incomprehensible originals. Throughout the show he brought more and more people onto the stage which only added to the confusion. Although the performance was well received, many people in the audience seemed to be holding back as if they were conserving their energy for the later acts. Rapper/20^th Ward Aldermanic candidate Rhymefest continued the live band trend by appearing onstage without a dj, backed up by Zzaje, a local band whom he often performs with. Highlights of the show included a version of his collaboration with Kanye West, “Brand New”, in which Rhymefest coaxed an nerdy looking audience member onto the stage to perform a surprisingly good rendition of the “Kanye-part” and a slower number which he delivered sitting on a stool like a late sixties soul singer. During the course of the show he gave out nearly a hundred CDs since as, he explained, he was “going to be an alderman soon” so he did not “need the money”.

However, the audience was really there to see Wu Tang Clan and as the group members walked onto the stage in their winter coats as the familiar sample from Shaolin versus Wu Tang that starts off Enter the Wu Tang began, the crowd erupted into cheers that were so loud that most of their opening song, “Bring da Ruckus” was nearly drowned out. The most impressive thing about seeing Wu Tang Clan live is the intensity of having eight or nine MCs on stage at once. Unlike most rap groups who have one or two rappers on stage at a time, the members of Wu Tang trade lines back and forth, rap in unison or in small groups of three and four to give their performances greater intensity and variety than most other hip hop artists. Most of the original members were in attendance although RZA is in China directing a movie and Raekwon was out due to an unspecified family emergency. (However, further research revealed that he was performing in New Jersey to promote a new solo recording that night.) However, like every good team, Wu Tang has a deep bench and these missing members were ably replaced by Streetlife and Cappadonna. Later in the concert ODB’s son came on to perform his father’s signature tunes “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and “Brooklyn Zoo”. The first twenty minutes of the show was devoted to a medley of tunes from Enter the Wu Tang which they tore through at breakneck speed as if they were trying to fit in as many songs as possible in the short time that they spent on stage. They barely stopped to catch their breath between songs which they often performed in shortened versions lasting only two minutes. After this they turned to material from later albums like The W and from some of the members’ solo projects such as GZA’s acclaimed Liquid Swords. Even a relative newcomer like Cappadonna got to perform his signature tune “Run”.

One criticism that the Wu Tang Clan often receives is that they play the same songs every show which makes their concerts pretty predictable. However, they have managed to turn this predictability into a virtue since so much of their show is dependent on audience participation and the energy that the crowd is able to generate. At the Congress Theater the crowd ate it up and spent the entire show on their feet engaging in impromptu sing- alongs and cheering loudly whenever the Wu Tang Clan acknowledged the fact that they were in Chicago. At some points in the show, it felt like the balcony, where we were sitting, was bouncing up and down as if we were on the deck of a ship. Unfortunately, the Wu Tang Clan’s performance ended abruptly after a little over an hour when someone in the balcony set off a smoke canister. At first many of us thought that this was part of the show. However, the smoke obscured the band and the crowd in front of the stage began clearing out since the smoke was irritating their eyes. We were sent off with a reminder from Methodman to buy some Wuwear in the lobby and with a few choice words for the people who ended the concert early (and their mothers) the Wu Tang Clan left the stage.