- OUTKAST
Offtop: Thursday, May 22, up at Chop Suey, you got a "Pre-Sasquatch Party" with Continental Soldiers. TREND ALERT: "Pre-" parties for events like Sasquatch! or SXSW, headlined by acts that aren't playing or even slightly involved with said event—that's sorta like a pre–Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction party headlined by Slipknot. Last time I saw the Continentals, I was most struck—not literally, thank god—by their giant, ornate, curved chain-link mic-stand sculpture that must've weighed at least 60 pounds. Do you have a tech for that? Does it get a seat belt in the van? Per diem? Also, yeah, they weren't good—but rest easy, as they've apparently added a live band. Come Friday, May 23, though, you'll find MIA-SEA MC JaWaan LaRue, Donte Peace, and Yirim Seck taking the Rendezvous stage, doing their Black Aries thing.
Tech N9ne and company are doing two nights over at Showbox Sodo on May 23–24, if that's what twists your bleached goatee. Not only will you find Tech and his Strange-mates, you will find one of street rap's choicest voices, the prolific Freddie Gibbs, who, with producer Madlib, made one of the year's best albums, Piñata.
Barring that, you can go for three sunbaked days and bestupored nights at the Gorge for Sasquatch! (May 23–25), where big things are most assuredly a-gwan. On Friday: OutKast. (The last time I saw them was at the Gorge, Aquemini era, and I was on toooo many mushrooms....
