Live: Tech N9ne in Silver Spring

Tech N9ne is currently out on tour bringing along with him Strange Music\’s newest addition Joey Cool, Just Juice, King ISO and of course the always entertaining Krizz Kaliko. Tech N9ne’s recent release “Planet” has already become one of my favorite albums of all time so I had high hopes for seeing the new material played live. I was able to catch the tour at The Fillmore in Silver Spring, Md. King ISO opened the night coming out in personalized jumpsuits and hoods. One of the things that stood out the most to me was the passion for suicide awareness and trying to make audience members understand how hard it really is. It was extremely respectable to see him reach out to the audience and genuinely tell them that he gets it. Joey Cool just became one of my new favorite artists. He performed his song “I\’m The Plug” off of his new self titled release and it has been stuck in my head since then. He also performed his song “Hard” that features Tech N9ne on the album. It was mentioned during his set that he is one of the latest additions to the Strange Music label. Just Juice started off his set by saying he was pretty sick but that he wasn\’t going to let it hold him back. While his voice did sound scratchy at times he made the best of a bad situation and fans were more than grateful for his performance. He took a second before a few of his songs to talk about their meanings and his life experiences which really went over well with the crowd, as well as his “fuck fake friends” chant that him and his hype man started. Even though he had to cut his set short a few minutes from being sick, Just Juice definitely made some lifelong fans tonight. Finally it was time for the almighty Tech N9ne. Throughout the night there had been a video screen on each side of the stage displaying the artists names but for Tech’s set one screen was him and the other was Krizz Kaliko. The really awesome part about that was throughout the performance the video versions of them matched up with the set so it was almost like seeing both sides of the artists during the set. He played his older hits like “Einstein”, “Hood Go Crazy” and of course “Caribou Lou.” He also played one of my personal favorites from the new album “No Reason.” Tech N9ne is hands down one of the best artists in the game today. Not only is his live show extremely entertaining but he can do it all with minimal production which really makes the experience more personal to the fans. Plus watching him and Krizz Kaliko do their thing on stage is one of the greatest experiences ever. -Tera Ford