Fair Ain’t Fair
The first time I saw Tim Fite was with So Called at the Knitting Factory which makes him an honorary Heeb. Plus he lives in Brooklyn which is what? 99% Jewish… Anyway he blew me away with his folk slinging rap style. It was like taking Beck’s loser aesthetic and somehow losing the novelty and branding it as its own genre ripe for a Grammy. The dude is deep with lines like, “they took what used to be my main liquor and made it legal…watered it down, sugared it up to f*ck to white people…nah, i can’t get high no more, uh uh, so, i’m a weak*ss drunk..you can’t serve piss and expect the dish is goin to be getting me drunk, (a few more curses)…that’s a glass of piss…you serving….and i’m not the one to drink a glass of piss…..but, supply and demand demand we all be drinking it and the man don’t care what we think…as long as we drink when we thinkin it.” “. It’s crude but also an Oscar Wilde like perception on capitalism and how it messes up good thangs. (it’s like on Idlewilde when Andre talks about Hollywood divorce, how all the fresh styles start out as a hood thang and by the time it reaches Hollywood it’s over). The genius comes out in the live show with all elements synched up through video and sound. Tim has the energy of a punk band and the quirkiness of that mathlete in high school that digs on the cheerleader. He bounces between running back and forth, like a crazed clown, on stage full of a ridiculous amount of facial expressions to rapping like a seasoned MC. Every so often between songs there are short skits with children music as a backing sountrack. Tim looks out to the crowd and reads the words that are projected on to the screen. You feel like you are back in kindergarten, but this time you wanna be-friend the teacher. He played a lot of songs off his new album, “Fair and Fair” which builds on his previous album, “Gone Ain’t Gone”, with rich melodies and layered sound. Tim has also released “2 Minute Blues” and the amazing “Over the Counter Culture” which he somehow had Epitaph back as a free to download album. Not sure how that worked out. but I’m happy just the same!
teaser video below (half of the first song from last night):
gearing up for the show
in the crowd
all photos taken at the show.
