The first act to go onstage was Brooklyn native, DJ Krazy Glue who got things started with his bass filled beats that made everyone’s head bounce. Krazy Glue has been around for some time now, playing and touring with such heavy hitters as Head Automatica and the legendary Mix Master Mike. He first worked with Cage on the 2005 “Hell’s Winter” tour which also featured Slow Suicide Stimulus. The tour was so successful, a DVD was recently released. Krazy Glue had a huge variation in the sounds he sampled in his music. Because of this, every song he played had a much different tone and feel than the song previous. He looked like he was having a ball standing on stage doing his own thing, he is a really talented guy and was a great addition to the tour.

I had a really good time watching Slow Suicide Stimulus play. The first song they played was a great way to start the show. The music was not turned up all the way, so there was a lot more emphasis on the vocals and the lyrics. The two emcees made sure to speak articulately and even did some vocal trade-offs, spitting single words back and forth and then busting right back in to the regular song. After this brief introduction, the beats were turned up and they began their regular set.

Most of the songs that they performed were off of their latest self titled album that was released in 2005, songs like “Regrets” and “Akinesia,” but the highlight of their set had to be “Roll Up,” the title track to their debut EP. Everyone was so pumped because the beat for that song is just incredible. Even the DJ was jumping up and down before the song even really got started.

There were however a few songs that I was not familiar with. “Shed Yo Skin” was one of them, and I was pretty surprised to hear singing as the chorus. Slow Suicide definitely made it their own, the chorus had a really eerie tone to it which was brought out even more when the members on stage just all of a sudden stood still and sort of swayed from side to side.

After their set was over, the lights stayed dim, whether it was intentional or not, the crowd wanted an encore. Slow Suicide made their way back out and performed a short a cappella freestyle and then finished with one last track off of their self titled.

Next to appear on stage was the main event, Cage Kennylz. Krazy Glue came out to DJ for him and members of Slow Suicide also joined him as back up vocals. I have heard people accuse Cage of acting ridiculously weird on stage which kind of ruins some of the songs since he is side tracked, but I did not see this at all. I thought he was right on the money for every song he played. I guess he may have had a few stage antics, but nothing close to ruining the songs.

Cage really knows how to work the crowd; he ran out on stage as soon as the beat started and became very aggressive in both his movements and in his voice. The one thing about his stage presence that I thought was pretty interesting was his ability to constantly change his moods. He was in stage mode during his songs; he seemed like he was ready to tear the roof off the place literally, but in between songs he was pretty silly and maybe even a little easy going.

Most of the songs he played were off of his later albums, Movies for the Blind and Hell’s Winter, songs like “A Suicidal Failure,” “Too Much,” and “The Death of Chris Palko.” Later in the set, I was very happy to hear him play some of his older singles, even though he may have not wanted to play them so much since he stated in a whiney voice, “Hey Cage, how come you never play old stuff, we wanna hear old stuff.” Nevertheless, “Radiohead,” Cage’s 1997 single, was my favorite part of the show.

I have read a lot of blurbs about how people think that artists like Cage are going to revolutionize the underground into something great, and not something that is by average standards these days. There is a generation of artists who would rather die than sell out and Cage is one of the growing few. There are not a lot of artists who can work a crowd like Cage Kennylz can and I hope everyone who reads this takes him into consideration and maybe can see him the next time he rolls through town.

Cage Kennylz

Slow Suicide Stimulus

DJ Krazy Glue

Cupcake Girls