INAUDIBLE

27 September 2009

Mayer Hawthorne & The County brought the love to the Drake Underground on Sunday to a sold out crowd. Opening the set with “Maybe So, Maybe No”, an energetic Hawthorne and his tight band, had the crowd immediately loving it – dancing, singing along, and blowing bubbles. Yes bubbles. They totally added an old-timey feel to his old school sound. I was happy to hear Mayer have his vocal chops live and not just on the album. He seems to enjoy having fun with the crowd, making us move in tight to dance, confiding with us about love, and even stopping in the middle of “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” to ask us if we like heavy metal and country, and then starting the song again with a reggae beat. Fun stuff.

The group played the hits from his just released “A Strange Arrangement” as well as a few covers, including a great extended version of “Love is All Right” from Cliff Nobles and Co, because as Hawthorne kept telling us: it was all about the love. Overall, it was a tight and fun set and there were a lot of pretty girls in the crowd, but unfortunately they only had eyes for the Mayer. The one thing missing from the band was some live horns, but all in due time . . .

Opening DJ mymanhenri is consistently awesome at his craft, always setting the mood with his 92bpm hip-hop vibe. I unfortunately missed BUFF1 throwdown his smooth Ann Arbor hip-hop, but did get to see 14KT‘s set before the headline and BUFF sat up behind the drums during his set and chilled out as 14KT dropped dope beats. Check out their collab track “Real Appeal” on BUFF’s latest album “There’s Only One”, it’s a winner. All in all, it was a great night of Detroit soul and hip-hop with mymanhenri representing for the T.

Keep it coming y’all.

Tags: 14KT, a strange arrangement, buff1, detroit, drake underground, hip hop, mayer hawthorne, meyer hawthorne, mymanhenri, soul, the drake hotel, toronto

This entry was posted on September 28, 2009 at 21:19 and is filed under hip hop, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.