Show Review - Flobots
The Flobots came to the State Theater in downtown St. Petersburg Tuesday, July 29 with opening act, Busdriver.
The show looked promising even from the line before the doors opened. A kid biked down the middle of Central Avenue with his hands in the air screaming “I can ride my bike with no handlebars!”, the opening line of the Flobots hit single, “Handlebars”.
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However, the opening acts left much to be desired. Fans waited for two hours while a local DJ sloppily mixed obscure hip-hop songs together. Finally, after several attempts to get Busdriver on stage, he appeared. The crowd was dead throughout his set which was a high contrast to his machine gun paced rapping style. His command of two microphones and a mixer did nothing to impress the crowd. During his acappella performance, the majority of the crowd entertained themselves in conversation with each other. Of the sold-out crowd only a few arms were up swaying to his beat. Near the end of his set he tried to say a few words but an overeager fan quickly cut him off by yelling, “You suck!” Busdriver went right into his next song and left the stage to the cheers of the audience who were obviously waiting for Flobots. The audience came alive when the Flobots took the stage singing along to the nearly every song. A sea of hands rose in the air keeping the beat as the emcees, Jonny 5 and Brer Rabbit, seamlessly spat rap lyrics back and forth. Backing them up on vocals was guitar player, Andy Guerrero, and violist, Mackenzie Roberts. Bassist Jesse Walker and drummer Kenny Ortiz kept the Flobots’ danceable rhythms going throughout the set. |
After several politically charged songs demanding change, Jonny 5 took the mike and explained the message of the Flobots. Even though the songs scream revolutionary themes, the Flobots want change to come about in a positive, peaceful way.
Despite the heavy themes in their songs and message, the Flobots know how to have fun. Halfway through the set, they introduced their style on the classic Turtles song, “Happy Together” by infusing alt-rock and rap. For the encore performance Roberts took the mic and sang Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” with Jonny 5 rapping intermittently throughout.
The set ended with “Handlebars” followed by “Rise” much to the delight of the fans. After the encore when the band left the stage and house lights came on, the audience shuffled reluctantly towards the door with smiles on their faces.
To visit The Flobot's MySpace page click here
By. Jerry Schutjer
