Tour Diary'a: How-e & Lup-e

I must admit, I'd never listened to Lupe Fiasco before last night, except for his skate-rap track "Kick Push."  But I was totally impressed. 

I'm no hip hop connoisseur, but a lot of what I heard sounded like hip hop torch songs - mostly due to his samples from rock, classical & jazz coupled with off-the-beaten-path beats.  As I stood on the stage snapping shots during the show, I found it nigh on impossible to keep my miniscule ass from shaking.  Having seen a few hip hop shows now, I would definitely rank Lupe's live show as one of the best.

It was also completely refreshing to hear non-knucklehead, self-aware, intelligent & eclectic lyrics for once. 

Backstage, Lupe (recently named one of GQ's Men of the Year) was a complete mensch.  Due to some meet & greet over-booking, there were a zillion people scheduled to get autographs & pictures with him.

Before the fans rushed in, though, he was changing out of his sweaty duds.  As he stood there only in his boxers, I asked him if I could take a picture with him without my shirt on too.  He said "hell no" as he indicated his scrawny frame.  It was worth a shot, I guess.

There's another Lupe show in Philly though.  Maybe now that we know each other a little better, we can do a photo shoot covered in rosemary-mint oil.

Here's my Flash Concerts blog and my MySpace page.

Here's my show shots.

Here's my interview, which I cut short to get him out early.

I'm leaving tomorrow for New York City, where I'll be staying with some-time CrazyTalk poster & long-time friend Mr. E. Danders & the lovely Lamar.  The next show is Nada Surf at the Hiro Ballroom.

Not sure what I'm going to do for my last night in Chicago.  Maybe I'll try to get into the Wolfmother show tonight.....