Photos by Bill Adams
As I started my night with Yo La Tengo at the Englert, Del was the cap on my night of shows. These shows were polar opposites of each other and I don’t mean just in terms of genre. While it was loud at points, the Yo La Tengo show ended with a rather quiet cover of a Sun Ra song. As I turned the corner onto Iowa from Dubuque, I saw the line in front of the Blue Moose and realized that this was going to be a very different affair from that one
The venue was alive and packed. If sweat could have dripped from the ceiling (it’s just a little too high), it probably would have. Although I missed The Serendipity Project and Bukue One, I caught the last two acts on the show: Mac Lethal and Del, with support from Bukue One, Zac Hendrix on the turntables and The Serendipity Project as his backing band.
To start with the former, Lethal is a Missouri-based MC who occupies that space between early Beastie Boys frat raps and Slug’s more emotionally based style. Accompanied by his hype man Patrick (who was celebrating his 21st birthday, Lethal rapped about DUIs, getting drunk and getting done over by girls. His style was good, contained a fair amount of sarcasm and displayed intelligence. He did an alright freestyle at the beginning of his set, told an amusing story about how he got confused for Slug by some girl that made out with him and referenced Tom Waits in one of his rhymes.
While his overall performance was generally good as he had solid stage presence, his set dragged on for a little bit too long. I, along with many in the audience, were getting slightly restless towards the end of his set as it was clear he was struggling with material.
After Lethal finished his set to a healthy smattering of applause, Del’s DJ came to the stage and started rocking old Parliament tracks. The growing crowd was in good spirits and just ready to rock. Following a couple of tracks and a sound check, Bukue One came on stage first, talking to the audience and introducing Del.
I have seen Del before way back in 2002 in Ohio, and the thing that I remembered about that performance was a distinct lack of energy. As a result, I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially with backing from something that I’m not huge on in hip-hop: the live band. What I got was a thoroughly entertaining set from him. Del came out firing, getting the audience fully into it and helping everyone to forget that it was hot as hell in the room. Sprinkled with some of his most popular songs like “Mistadobalina” and “If You Must” as well as new material, Del powered through his set and ended with giving the band some love.
While the folks who came to the show because it was free started to leave after a song or two, the folks that knew what he was about stayed around and had a ball, throwing hands up, dancing, and having pure fun. Aside from a couple of fights, the night was peaceful. When they left the stage, Bukue One thanked Iowa City for having them and said that they would be back again in the future. If they rock it like they did this time with Del not even breaking a sweat (literally, and he was in a long sleeve shirt), Iowa City would like to have them back again and again.
