A few weeks ago we attended a hip hop concert by the Atlanta band Arrested Development. The venue was Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, a crowded and intimate space located in a former brothel in downtown Denver. Terri and I did our best with ear protection but wound up struggling. I am on the hunt for even better means than the earplugs we thought would work. It was loud and moving.
I had ignorantly associated hip hop with gangster rap and didn’t really understand the genre this great band embraces. And, of course, each genre has so many offshoots that it’s usually a mistake to try and catalog it. As soon as you think it must be one thing, you hear a different strain and realize its roots have sprouted a massive many-branched tree that spreads its limbs wide. Just think of jazz and its many variations: Kenny G vs. Miles Davis.
What an absolutely delightful performance by one of the great bands of our time.
Get yourself some proper ear protection and mark your calendar.
If you still have a spark of rhythm and breath of beat in you, go see this band.
