By Odeisel

The revolution will not be televised. However if you are lucky, you’ll be able to catch it live on stage in the form of the Street Sweeper Social Club. The group is a marriage of artists who have long stood for freedom and a stand against government and corporate ills. Fronted by the Coup’s Boots Riley, one of the most socially relevant MC’s of all time and brilliant Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, this group is much closer to body bags than popping tags.

They took the stage dressed in black military jackets appearing like M. Bison meets general Zod, and you could tell immediately that they were there to wreck shop. There were no dancers or anything unnecessary on stage. Morello’s guitar is scripted with the words “Arm The Homeless.” You know what time it is.

As two long time stage vets, you would expect them to have a command of the stage and that was fairly evident. Boots Riley is professional, and his presence was only bolstered by the hard drums and heavy guitars, not overpowered by them. You can hear the Bay area flavor in his voice and it was clear and distinct. No huffing and puffing. Because they are a new group, they couldn’t use the crowd to sing along and get respite, so it was all show.

Verses by Riley and guitar solos by Morello had a thunder and lightning effect on the crowd; making the audience bob their heads to drum driven rhymes and flash along to the instruments. The stage show was well paced and showmanship was in full play. I’ m not familiar with their catalog yet, but there were a few songs that profited from familiarity of composition. They aped M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” for a joint called “Take Your Money” which allowed the crowd to sing along with familiarity.

Morello and Riley look like they have been playing together for a while. It’s not quite the anarchy of Public Enemy in the 80’s but it is strong and minutely menacing and bursting with energy. They played through a couple feedback issues with the microphones without missing a beat or using the time honored Hip-Hop tradition of threatening the soundman.

I’ll let their show speak for them because I don’t know enough about their music to give you their titles, but if you find them coming to a show near you, do yourself a favor and take that show in. You won’t regret it.

Peace.

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