Any time you go to a concert to see somebody perform, you can expect your 
share of up and downs - and true to form, this concert at the Music Box 
in Omaha, Nebraska had plenty of both.

Standing outside the club waiting to get in, there was a profound lack of 
knowledge about Digital Underground's career being discussed. One person 
in line in front of me outright stated they were "popular in the late 
80's and early 90's, and hadn't done anything since then." I had to 
point out that Digital Underground had been releasing albums all 
throughout the 90's including the recent "Who Got the Gravy?" release.
Then somebody else said "I heard they're still popular in Oakland."
What can you do but just throw up your hands at that kind of stuff?

Showing up right as the club opened probably wasn't the right decision.
On the plus side, it gave me a good amount of time to drink and get my 
buzz on before the opening act, on the minus side it was a whole two 
hours we had to kill before the first act came on. Ill Dojo was their 
name, and as it turns out Michelle and I both know their guitarist from 
having run into him at a wedding (he's either family or a friend of 
somebody in the family) - his name's Chet. Anyway Ill Dojo is one of 
those new rap-rock groups whose style is somewhere between Papa Roach 
and Limp Bizkit. It's not my favorite kind of music, but for a rap-rock 
group and especially for one that's local I thought they came off nice.

The time between the end of their set and the start of D.U.'s set is 
a bit of a blur for several reasons. One is that I was trying as hard 
as I could to get a buzz on before the show (had more than a few beers 
plus a sex on the beach and an L.I.I.T.) Another is that a seemingly 
random cacophony of rappers took and left the stage at various times.
I think one was a local group called "Verballly Insane" and at first 
I thought they were "Totally Insane" from the Left Coast. The last 
group was comprised of Digital Underground's touring DJ and a couple 
of MC's who I can only assume were roadies, who kept us waiting and 
kept asking if we were ready for Digital Underground. Yes, we were!
What I wasn't ready for was the fact that one of the roadies took an 
EA Sports game and flung it into the audience - and as it bounced off 
several people's hands it came straight at me when I wasn't looking 
and suddenly I caught a mouthful of Madden, the HARD WAY. Teeth aching 
like a motherfucker and I'll probably have a fat lip to boot.

But before D.U., they brought on a group of b-boys and b-girls all 
dressed in matching red shirts. They made us back up about ten to 
twelve feet from the stage to give them enough room to dance, and 
then they proceeded to do a variety of pop-locking, back-spinning, 
robot motions, you name it they did it. The best thing about it 
was they used old school hip-hop entirely before 1989 - everything 
from "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow to "Microphone Fiend" by Rakim.

Finally, after all this preamble, the performance from Digital 
Underground's touring group, and the breakers, Shock G and Money B 
finally took the stage. The strains of "Sex Packets" was what 
brough them on. Behind them on stage was a large tarp decorated 
with all six D.U. albums from left to right on the top and eight 
albums listed underneath - three from 2Pac, one from Raw Fusion, 
a solo album by Money B and several others. The beginning of the 
show was a medley of various hits, concluding with the D.U. verses 
from 2Pac's song "I Get Around" where they got the whole crowd to 
chant along "Round and round, round we go." 

The downside of this 
is that while they were performing the intro they took cans of 
silly string and sprayed it into the crowd. I have nothing at all 
against silly string, but the fact is that it comes out slippery 
and when it hits the ground it's even more slippery. Result, a 
complete loss of traction in the front row; making it even easier 
for people who want to shove their way up to the front to push and 
slide you around. My girl got some right in the eye too. :(

Things got a little messy after that. Digital Underground decided 
to perform "Freaks of the Industry" and of course I'm hyped about 
that since it's one of my all-time favorites from their first album.
But then they've got some bead necklaces hanging over the mic up on 
stage; you know, like the ones that are given out at Mardi Gras. 
They proceed to entice women to come up to the stage and vehemently 
protest that you've got to "earn these." As a result while the song 
is going on these women proceed to take off their bras, lift up their 
shirts, and expose various parts of themselves to us in many ways.
The side effect of this is a bumrush of horny men in various stages 
of drunkenness rushing up to the stage to see this, and as a result
a fight broke out between two people right next to us. I nearly 
got bowled over, and Michelle caught a punch to the shoulder. Some 
people got between them to break it up, but by this time my girl was 
fed up and headed for the back of the club to take refuge from the 
madness and the flashing tits in front of her.

D.U. caught me off guard with one song I clearly didn't recognize about
ecstasy, whose hook I can best remember as "take this ex, you'll feel 
good soon, you'll be giving me head in my hotel room" or something to 
that effect. Even if it's from 'Who Got the Gravy' I don't remember 
it but I thought I honestly knew all the D.U. songs. Then again, they 
were performing songs by other groups and artists all night long, 
including "I Got 5 On It" by the Luniz, at which point one of the 
stage crew actually lit a joint and passed it to everybody standing 
in the front row. People around me were getting MAD blitted on it.

Afterwards they performed "Same Song" and at one point Shock G leaned 
from the stage and stuck the mic right into my face. Unfortunately 
due to the fact I was dazed and drunk I babbled even though I know 
Tupac's verse by heart and probably only managed get right the line
when he says "same song" at the end. For the guy who runs OHHLA this 
is extremely embarassing, but not near as much so as getting shoved 
down to my knees afterwards due to the slippery floor and the fact 
someone bumrushed me hard from behind. I got helped up before someone 
stomped on me but after that point I locked my knees hard - resulting 
in the fact I could barely walk after the show was over - and I crossed 
my arms in what people would typically call a "b-boy stance" to lock 
my elbows in - when people tried to shove me again I literally went 
and "throwed them 'bows" to keep my spot in front of the stage.

The rest of the concert was pretty much as expected, right up to 
them closing with a remixed version of "Doowhutchalike" and then 
closing with the "Humpty Dance." I have to say, and I'm not trying 
to diss on my midwestern brethern, but it's really strange to hear 
somebody with practically a hillbilly accent screaming out "Shock G 
you're the maaaaaaaaaaaan!" while he's standing on stage with his 
Humpty Hump nose and a pimp style overcoat on. I was actually 
pleasantly surprised that they closed the show after this without 
any cheesy "encores" though, and that I got to slap hands with both 
Money B and Shock G during the course of the show.

Plus side - they did their most recognized hits, they had a very high 
level of energy, and their performance on the stage lasted at least 
an hour if not more. There was plenty of crowd participation, and the 
people in the club were definitely feeling the Digital Undergorund vibe.

Minus side - they didn't perform almost anything more recent than "Kiss 
You Back" and certainly didn't cover any material from "Future Rhythm" 
or "Who Got the Gravy?" I really wish they had at least done "Oregano 
Flow" or Shock/Humpty's verse out of "The Odd Couple." On top of that 
the silly string was really a bad idea (led to many near injuries and 
may have at least contributed to the fight) and getting the women to 
disrobe during "Freaks of the Industry" damn near caused a riot.

Overall for $10 I can't complain. It's not the best concert that I've 
ever been to, but it wasn't the worst either.

Peace, Flash