Tonight, Mad Rad return to Neumos for the first time since they were banned from the club (and several others) last year following a fight with some bouncers (band members were arrested, spent a night in jail, but were later tried and had all charges cleared, dismissed or deferred). It should be nothing but a celebratory occasion, but it's hard not to feel the shadow of Shabazz Palaces' epic show on the same stage just two weeks ago. So, what becomes of the so-called "third wave" of Seattle hip hop in the wake of Shabazz? That's the question I grapple with in this week's installment of Fucking in the Streets:

If Seattle hiphop up until now could be described as a series of waves, as my colleague Charles Mudede has called it, then last week's Stranger cover star Shabazz Palaces represents something like a singularity. Not a part of any wave, but a momentary break, an event outside of that time line that will nevertheless cast ripples across what happens next.

[...]

So it'll be interesting to see what Mad Rad bring to the table when they take the Neumos stage (the same one that Shabazz lit up two weeks ago) on Thursday, January 21, for a (FREE!) concert called "Squashed"—as in, squashed beef. The show marks Mad Rad's triumphant return to Neumos after a dustup with the bar's bouncers early last year got the group banned from several clubs. The members arrested in that incident were found not guilty of all charges back in June; by October, they were playing the War Room (one of the clubs that had banned them) and being introduced by no less than soon-to-be-mayor Mike McGinn. But it's taken a while for them to come around with Neumos for this show, and that's kind of a shame. Where Shabazz Palaces felt like the start of 2010 and beyond, this show feels a little bit like finishing the outstanding business of 2009.

Read and comment on the whole thing here.