I try to see STL GLD every chance I get. The 2024 Boston Music Awards Live Artist of the Year are celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, and part of that celebration was taking over the Museum of Fine Arts for an MFA Late Night. Seeing as how they also had Brandie Blaze performing, I simply had to make it for this one.
First a note about MFA Late Nights. I've been meaning to go to one for years, and this was my first one. Getting to walk around a fancy art museum after hours for a special event is ridiculously fun, and it kind of feels like you're getting away with something naughty. The crowd was a mix of museum patrons there for a fancy museum event and STL GLD/hip hop fans there for the music. It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've been to the MFA, so I spent my time before the music running around trying to take in the current Salvador Dali exhibit, the Georgia O'Keefe and Henry Moore exhibit, and to see all of the Van Gogh, Monet, and Sargent that I could. I missed far too much of the artwork and far too many of the evening's events, but still had a great time.
STL GLD took the stage around 11:00 pm for a surprisingly laid back performance. It's been a while since I've seen them with a horn section, so that helped shake things up a bit for the long running hip hop collective. The band played favorites like "Money Bags, "Chaka Zulu," and "Wild Style," which are always crowd pleasers. Part of the laid back quality of the evening was how family heavy it was. The band made lots of shout outs to family members that were in attendance, and Moe Pope gave out many hugs during the show. There were even special appearances by Latrell James and Najee Janey during their set.Plus, I'm of an age that seeing a hip hop show at an art museum is fairly mind blowing. They even broke out their song with Too Many Zooz, "Donut Shop." They rarely play this one live, and while there was a couple of mistakes during the song, it was still great to see it performed live. Here's to at least ten more years of STL GLD!
I've been a fan of Brandie Blaze for a while now, and Friday night was the first time I've seen her perform live. She took the stage with a DJ, and all of my waiting for rewarded. Boston currently has an abundance of female MCs that know how to own a stage, and Blaze is at the top of that list. Songs like "In Your Life" translated perfectly to the stage, and she commanded that stage just by herself. Blaze rocketed right to the top of my must see list with a thirty minute performance.
I had never heard of Nate Nics before he took the stage, but was quickly won over by his set. I had meant to check out a song or two before wandering around to see more art and events, but got sucked into his performance completely, and ended up accidentally watching the whole thing. We'll definitely be keeping on eye on him from here on.
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