The party must go on

Fire forced Run the Jewels to postpone tonight’s show. (It’ll be rescheduled.) Here’s how you can scorch some earth this weekend.

shineI think we can all agree this has been one big drag of a week, all things considered. There’s plenty to be pissed off about. That is, I suppose, if you aren’t a card-carrying white supremacist.

I don’t know what to say about Ferguson so I’m not going down that hole. I’ll paraphrase Killer Mike’s words from the days following the murder of Michael Brown: whatever unrestricted power will do the least of us, it will one day do to all of us.

When tonight’s scheduled Run the Jewels concert was cancelled yesterday — before it became clear that the postponement was due to a fire in the band’s merch trailer — two thoughts crossed my mind in rapid succession.

The first was, to borrow les mots justes colleague and crony Erik Leijon quipped at me via text as we expressed our bummed-out-isms, “America needs Killer Mike.”

The second was that Canada was no longer going to welcome a dude who put the fuckin’ Man on blast  from a stage in St. Louis in the hours following the Wilson verdict in Ferguson on Tuesday night.

But Mike and El-P actually flew in for their TO gig yesterday, dropping MTL because of the bigger-picture ass-pains the blaze places on the tour. Speaking of blazing, dudes, seriously: Stop partying in the merch van! I’m just glad they’re okay, and you know damn well that when they finally get here, it will be that much more special.

Meanwhile, I worked my ass off to bring our readers these two in-depth interviews with Mike and El this week.

I spoke to them in late October for our November print issue. Barely a day has gone by since that Run the Jewels hasn’t made the news. I’d like to think these interviews capture not so much a moment in time for the band as they do the individual mindsets of two artists who are uncompromisingly reaping the rewards and attention for the work they have put into music apart, together.

And when we get a make-up date, I’ll do my best to get them on the phone real quick, together this time, and ask them why the fuck they think Toronto deserved a show but we didn’t. I’ll also get some quotes on discount pricing for slightly scorched merch.

Here’s where you can, figuratively speaking, scorch some earth this weekend.

Thursday: Le Cypher keeps the freestyle circle alight at le Belmont, where special guest X-Wam boxes with beats. 4483 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $4

Comic heads will wanna hit le Waverly for the launch of Z’Isle issue #2. The One Tash and Basement Soul keep the zombies off the dancefloor. 5550 St-Laurent, 10 p.m., free

Friday: We might not be able to run jewels this weekend, but let’s see what happens if we turn up with a Buck 65, with openers Jon and Roy in our pocket at the Corona Theatre. 4483 St-Laurent, 8 p.m., $20

And if you love “Ghetto Superstar,” they’ve got one of them — Mya — at Roxbury. Bonus: DJ Mike Cee, Kwite Sane and Chops. 1432 Crescent, 10 p.m., $25

Saturday: The funk is free at BBAM! Gallery, with CTQ‘s pan-galactic earshots coming at you. 3255 St-Jacques, 3 p.m., free

Night brings the Goods to la Sala Rossa, with guests Soul Jazz Orchestra in rhythmic solitude with the greats. 4848 St-Laurent, 10:30 p.m., $10

 

Follow The Shine on Twitter @ShineCultMTL and join the Facebook community for more spark