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BWW Reviews: ¡Mayday!'s SEARCH PARTY TOUR Kick-Off Explodes Miami
By: Trevor Durham Aug. 22, 2017
I personally doubt anything could top ¡MAYDAY!'s Search Party Tour kick-off in Miami. Wrekonize is three months sober, Potluck has disbanded and left 1-Ton a solo rapper/MC, and Plex Luthor sadly isn't back for the tour, but those lucky enough to be inside Blackbird Ordinary when the party started can attest to an incomparable night of hip hop, musical variance, and surprises left and right. Strange Music never lets its fans down, and The Search Party Tour is an end-of-summer highlight to keep things strange.
My night started with ¡MAYDAY! at 5:30p.m., hours before the venue opened. In the bar, Tech N9ne and Wrekonize filmed the K.O.D.'s verse (something that had to be seen to be believed) for one of ¡MAYDAY!'s new music videos. Outside, 1-Ton and Bernz were running sound check and chilling with fans. Techa Nina and Wrek soon joined, and the sunset coming through the glass ceiling lent an air of fantasy to the quaint space, soon to explode with fans, bass, and power.
"Yeah, I'm three months sober man," Wrekonize told us around a table. "My wife is pregnant, so it just made sense..." Quaint openings and quality stories were shared, myself and the fans gaining insight to one of the night's stars. He talked on about the set-up for The Search Party Tour ("We finished the set like, yesterday"), the things to come, the excitement of beginning a tour in his home territory. We asked him about what to expect from the night's setlist, and he laughed when I brought up Stuck on an Island. "We haven't played anything from that live, since, y'know, Plex stopped touring with us," he said, before proudly talking about Aaron Eckhart's work with FIU. Bernz came over and told us that we should head over to Wynwood to catch FamFest, the annual celebration of the arts, where some of the performers would be headed, while others continued to their local studio. Tagging along with some of the others, we got in an Uber on our way to The Lightbox.
Flash to 9:00pm, after a bit of a scuffle getting back into the venue with the help of 1-Ton himself, and things are falling into place. 1-Ton, functioning as tour manager, MC at every show, and opening act, is a party in and of himself. As the sole remaining member of hip-hop group Potluck, he has just released a solo project, and is kicking ass on the Search Party Tour. After a few shots of Crown Royal, and meeting glasses, he says his goodbyes to prepare for the show.
The man takes stage less than an hour after, booming voice and flirtatious demeanor capturing the space and giving it the feel of a stadium. I'm ashamed I hadn't heard of this powerhouse before, but before I could consider, he thrust the microphone in my face mid-song- "SCREAM." Scream I did. He dove into the audience, pushing through the crowd and partying along with the crowd through his set, the kind of act any amateur could ruin. The only thing I believe 1-Ton capable of ruining after his criminally brief set is dead air. I duck back inside the bar to get myself a drink and prepare for the night to continue.
Lights flash left and right, the stage shakes, the show bursts with a typhoon onto the intimate stage. The drummer is going wild on the left, the DJ is working magic on the right. Bernz and Wrek take the stage and The Search Party begins its hunt with a bang. Starting with the Future Vintage single 'Can't Take it With You', and moving through ¡MursDay!, Believers, and Take Me to Your Leader, the night flourished.
Only five songs into their set, the group ramps it up by one hundred and pulls onstage the legendary Tech N9ne to perform 'Long Night' from the titular Search Party album (sadly still unreleased as of writing). Wrek, Bernz, and Tech ramped quickly into one of the label owner's biggest smashes- 'Fragile', to a deafening uproar. After spitting one of his most infamous speed verses with Wrek smoothly riffing the chorus, Tech shouted his thanks. "These mothafuckas played me this beat some years ago... It was theirs and they gave it to me... And I said, Are you sure? You wanna give me this mothafuckin' hit? And they said yes, and this mothafucka' went gold, it's going on to go fuckin' platinum- thank you to ¡MAYDAY! for having me, and loving me, I love you back- TECH N9NE!"
The night didn't end there, somehow; ¡MAYDAY! are no amateurs, snatching Tech's energy and using it to fuel the fire. We got to see shots fired over the audience, they switched us into airplane mode, and the high ride did not stop. The constantly flowing energy, wise transitions, intimate venue, and unbelievably talented performers kicked off one of the dopest tours Strange has had in a while. After this show, there wasn't a fan in the building not scrambling to get a Search Party pre-order or praying for ¡MAYDAY! to bring the show back to Miami one more time. Strange Music for life, indeed.
The Search Party Tour continues performing nationwide. Tickets and tour info can be found here.
Photo credits: Piper Jones.
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