It's the energy of live hip-hop that usually draws me in, turning the lyrics in my car into a unifying experience of call-and-response between the crowd and MC and The Knux didn't disappoint. As personable as any group out there, Kintrell “Krispy Kream” Lindsey’ and Alvin “Rah Almillio” Lindsey stormed the small stage in front of the crowd that was crammed into the aisle ways and among the records. Lamenting at first that he was too removed from the intimate crowd (and perhaps a bit crammed onstage) Krispy had to settle for leaning out towards the crowd over the railing.
The Knux make the sort of hip-hop music that's been enjoying some revival these days- catchy, bopping lyrics on top of rich, up-tempo beats topped with some driving electric guitar and a few world-beats thrown in for good measure. The overall sound is catchy, familiar and varied, at times sounding a bit like Outkast or Gnarls Barkley. The set featured material off their album Remind Me In Three Days, including "Bang Bang," Daddy's Little Girl," "Cappuccino" and a conclusion of "FIRE (Put it in the Air)" in which their crew (including backing keys, DJ and Bass) packed in to perform the "Fire Dance." Rah Almillio demonstrated how its done- with a kick out ("kick out, kick out"), turn ("Get your flip out, flip out"), bounce ("and your dip out, dip out") and arm to the sky ("tell um, put em in the air!") Krispy also mentioned something about a competition and reward for the best Fire Dance - I guess I'll have to search YouTube in the coming days.
While the boys were obviously annoyed when they experienced some mic difficulties, at one point loosing the vocals completely the took this in stride, climbing onto the railing to lean out and yell out the lyrics, accompanied somewhat by the crowd. Taking the opportunity while trying to fix this between songs they asked us how we were enjoying SXSW and got us pumped up for their music. Friend Shwayze briefly joined them on stage for a quick hello but declined to stay, mumbling something about "working." The crowd was quite enthusiastic to participate and Krispy deftly drew everyone in, asking us to raise one arm before the tune started and even calling out some folks who were just across the store buying movies. After this taste I am excited to see what they do on a bigger stage with an even larger crowd.
