[Live Show] 3 Foot Icon

When: Friday, September 28
Where: 8 x 10 Club, Baltimore MD

3 Foot Icon is a new project fronted by Speech of Arrested Development, Chief Xcel of Blackalicious, and Kyle Hollingsworth of String Cheese Incident. They came to Baltimore this past Friday night for a late (10:30pm doors) show and exceeded my already hyped expectations.

Why was I expecting good things? The answer is simple really; the presence of Chief Xcel. I'm of the opinion that everything Xcel touches is golden. Examples include the Blackalicious classics NIA, Blazing Arrow, and The Craft and his collaboration with Quannum labelmate Lateef the Truthspeaker entitled Maroons: Ambush.

I was also looking forward to checking out Speech. At the height of his popularity as the leader of the hugely popular, MTV regulars, Arrested Development, I was busy digging Tool, NIN, the Pixies etc. to recognize. But later on I grew to respect Speech as an artist, a voice, and a talent. And so this setting was a great opportunity to see where he's at now.

And then there's that String Cheese guy. Have to admit, not a fan of String Cheese Incident. But the fact that Kyle was involved in a project with the two aforementioned artists earned major points before the show ever began. Then I heard him play. Alright, as if this comes as some surprise, Kyle Hollingsworth can definitely play.

Band started tight with an instrumental jam consisting of Kyle on keys, Chief on turntables and laptop, guitar player, bass player, and drummer. (I regret that I don't have the names of the other players in the band. Apparently 3 Foot Icon has ignored the universal law that each and every musical endeavor, no matter the quality or legitimacy, requires its own separate myspace page.) Speech entered stage left moments into the second song, driven by a "nod-your-head-to-this" Chief Xcel beat. The band started to fall into the beat (somewhat off) until Xcel faded it out and ripped into some nice scratching.

Ended up getting a Mr. Wendel, Tennessee, and encore of Everyday People. And you know what? It wasn't lame at all. The sound lived up to the hype. Hip-Hop met Jam met Soul. These cats rocked.

[Got more to say but it's taking me too long to finish posts and get them up. So this one's going up almost done. I know, pretty weak.]