As published in Rukus Magazine:
http://www.rukusmag.com/2011/1011/concert_review_mc_lars.html
He studied English at Stanford. He loves Iggy Pop, A Confederacy of Dunces, as well as WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. He shouts out exclamations like “reading is awesome!” Clearly, this 28-year-old Berkeley, California native is no ordinary hip-hop artist. Fiercely independent, MC Lars (aka Andrew Robert Neilsen) does things his own way. He releases music on his own label, sells his own merchandise, and he never holds back on speaking his mind. It’s this kind of raw expression, mixed with an intellectual bent, which wowed the rapturous packed audience at West Hollywood's Troubadour on September 27th.
Before the show even started, the chanting began…”MC LARS!” “MC LARS!” “MC LARS!” The crowd wasn’t just ready; they were ravenous for what was about to happen. Backed by a live drummer and bassist, MC Lars burst on to the Troubadour stage with a contagious amount of energy that spread throughout the historic club. Opening the concert with the title track of his new album LARS ATTACKS!, MC Lars performed an exhilarating 10-song set that had people singing, clapping and jumping up and down.
Using two video screens (on either side of the stage), MC Lars used images to complement his fast-paced, hip-hop rhetoric. For example, during the second song, “History’s Greatest Assholes,” pictures and videos were used to accentuate each of history’s assholes...i.e. Hitler, Stalin, Jack the Ripper, Pol Pot, and more. Better still; MC Lars got the entire Troubadour to shout out the “assholes!” part of the song’s chorus.
“Welcome to the independent hip-hop show!” announced the intellectual rapper before the evening’s third song. “I feel like we’re all here tonight because we support something different”…and different they got with “Generic Crunk Rap”…a parody of mainstream hip-hop found on his 2006 THE GRADUATE album. This time around, the master MC had the crowd shouting out “GET CRUNK!” after various lines in the song’s chorus, i.e. “Buy cars (GET CRUNK!), Take shots (GET CRUNK!), Have sex (GET CRUNK!).”
Before performing “Annabel Lee R.I.P” (the closing track on LARS ATTACKS!), MC Lars gave credit to the song’s inspiration, Edgar Allen Poe. “I want to give a shout out to an old school rapper…a master of iambic tetrameter.” During “White Kids Aren’t Hyphy” (from 2009’s THIS GIANT ROBOT KILLS), MC Lars had the crowd jumping high in the air. “Super Scope” (another track from LARS ATTACKS!) was introduced as a song about “how hip-hop saved my life.”
The emotional core of MC Lars dynamic set, was “Twenty-Three,” a song written about his friend Patrick Wood…who committed suicide in 2006. Lars confessed, “I never really recovered from that.” He went on to add that he works with the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention, and has raised (during his U.S. tour) over $1300 in donations for the non-profit organization.
Introducing “Ahab,” MC Lars proclaimed, “I’m kind of a literature rapper. I love to take the 16th century, 19th century poems, play, books…and turn them into songs. I created this genre called Lit-Hop.” Speaking of which, the next song,“Hey There Ophelia,” was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was dedicated to Misty Dawn, a beautiful redhead in attendance that night, who had appeared in the “Lars Attacks!” music video.
To close out the show, MC Lars belted out the Edgar Allen Poe-inspired “Mr. Raven”…an early gem from his 2004 release, THE LAPTOP EP. Once again, he encouraged the crowd to participate in the song. With MC Lars at the helm, everyone happily sung along to “Who's that (who's that) rapping? Who's that rapping at my chamber door? Mr. (mister) Raven! All up in my grill like, "Nevermore.”
After the concert, MC Lars told me he loved the Troubadour audience “…the crowd was crazy. I thought they were hungry for something different. There was a lot of love.” He added, “This niche has grown, y’know? The intellectual hip-hop world has grown…and it’s awesome.” Awesome is right.
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