Living Legends - L.E.S.S. is More Tour, Calgary, AB (5.06.10)
Posted by Bill Wannop on 05.20.2010
The rap super group the Living Legends stopped by Canada on the LESS is More tour. However, would passport problems and poor promotion hurt the overall show?
The Living Legends rap group has been around since the early 1990’s being one of the pioneers of independent hip-hop. The legends are composed of 8 rappers from the California area and were formed in 1995 when the rap group Mystic Journeymen, made up of Sunspot Jonz and Luckyiam, met up with the Grouch and the group called Three Melancholy Gypsies (Eligh, MURS, Scarub). The group would add two more members, Bicasso and Aesop in the coming years to make the group 8 strong. Over the years the group has become one of the most successful stories of independent rap as they have managed to sell over 300,000 copies of their albums, through their own label and company.
The Living Legends recently stopped by Calgary, Alberta, Canada as part of the L.E.S.S. is More Tour on Thursday May 6, 2010. The tour was called the L.E.S.S. is More Tour due to the fact that only Luckyiam, Eligh, Sunspot Jonz and Scarub were on the tour. Being my first chance to actually see the Living Legends perform I was pretty excited even though it was only half the group. I was worried about the show however due to the relatively poor promotion it had received. I only heard about the show 2 weeks before it was scheduled to take place and I had a feeling that because of this fact that the attendance would be small.
Upon arriving at the venue the lack of promotion was evident again, as the stage was quite baron without even a Living Legends sign or banner anywhere to be seen. Also there was a complete lack of a merchandise booth, which to me hurts the overall feeling of the whole show.
The opening act was the rap group the Random Humans, who are an up and coming group composed of Deception and Bear, from Vancouver, Canada. The group was actually quite good, with Deception working the stage well and Bear on the turntables. They had lots of energy and were able to really get the crowd going. Deception had a good stage presence about him, along with some good flows, with the best and most memorable songs being Drink a lot of Beer and You Don’t Know What You Do To Me. They did what any good opening act should do and that is warm up the crowd get everyone going to leave you ready for the main act. I would be interested in checking out their full length album when it becomes available based on their performance.
At this time, there was a break in the show and Sunspot Jonz and Eligh set up their merchandise booth, which were basically two tables pushed together with their single cd’s on it. While it was a nice touch to have the artists selling the merchandise allowing you to talk with them, take pictures and get autographs, the lack of merchandise was brutal. There was not a single Living Legends shirt, hat or album, which was quite disappointing.
The legends eventually made it on stage and started off good with some upbeat songs off their earlier releases before introducing each legend to the crowd. The disappointments continued as it was announced that Luckyiam could not get into the country, so we got only three Legends on stage tonight (effectively making it the E.S.S. is more tour).
After the three performers were introduced, the show basically turned into solo acts, as the legends performed mainly their solo songs, all on stage. Now I know the majority of Living Legends songs, as well as some of the songs off their various side projects (3MG, Grouch and Eligh, etc.), but the majority of the songs that they played were from their own solo albums, which I had never heard before. This necessarily would not have been a bad thing if the songs they had chosen were more upbeat and had more energy to them, but the majority of the songs they played were quite slow, which tended to kill the crowd.
The only exception would have to be from Eligh. Whenever he performed, he seemed to grab the crowd’s attention and get the energy back in the building as he performed some of this rapid fire sings such as Ever After off of No More Greener Grasses. That is not to say that the other performers did not play any recognizable songs, they played such songs as Right Now by Mystic Journeymen, and Beautiful Minds by 3MG but the rest of the show seemed disjointed and slow.
Near the end of the show Eligh again impressed everyone by playing a new song off his upcoming album, with the song being called Bus Driver that again was a great song and kept the crowd energy going. It is safe to say that Eligh was the definite MVP of the evening, and saved the show for me with his performance.
To finish off the show they finally played some more Living Legends songs, including their hit Never Falling Down and one of my personal favorites Rabbit Hole. But it was too little too late I’m afraid.
The show seemed like it was under promoted, rushed and thrown together at the last minute, meaning the fans got more of 3 small solo acts rather than the Living Legends. In total I think that they only played about 5 Living Legends songs which was a disappointment. While Sunspot Jonz was really good at working the crowd and was jumping around on stage, the song selection for himself, and Scarub was too slow for my tastes. Eligh really saved the evening for me, showing his stellar flow by playing some fast upbeat songs and even premiering some new songs off his upcoming album.
All in all I was a little disappointed by the performance. Not saying that any of the songs or the performances of the artists played were bad. Quite the contrary, they all performed their songs well, but the songs they performed were what hurt the show, perhaps I was expecting too much. Add to that the fact that Luckyiam was a no-show and that I was supposed to get an interview with the Legends before the show which was also a no-show (which more likely due to the promoter or PR guy then the artists themselves as they were more than willing to talk while at the merch booth).
The 411: Sunspot Jonz, Scarub and Eligh put all they had into the show, but for the most part the set list just fell flat. It was not really a Living Legends show as only three members of the group performed and did only 5 Living Legends songs, so they really should not have been promoted as such. Eligh really came through and had a solid, show stealing performance, but the lack of Luckyiam, was really disappointing.
The Living Legends rap group has been around since the early 1990’s being one of the pioneers of independent hip-hop. The legends are composed of 8 rappers from the California area and were formed in 1995 when the rap group Mystic Journeymen, made up of Sunspot Jonz and Luckyiam, met up with the Grouch and the group called Three Melancholy Gypsies (Eligh, MURS, Scarub). The group would add two more members, Bicasso and Aesop in the coming years to make the group 8 strong. Over the years the group has become one of the most successful stories of independent rap as they have managed to sell over 300,000 copies of their albums, through their own label and company. 
The legends eventually made it on stage and started off good with some upbeat songs off their earlier releases before introducing each legend to the crowd. The disappointments continued as it was announced that Luckyiam could not get into the country, so we got only three Legends on stage tonight (effectively making it the E.S.S. is more tour). 
The only exception would have to be from Eligh. Whenever he performed, he seemed to grab the crowd’s attention and get the energy back in the building as he performed some of this rapid fire sings such as Ever After off of No More Greener Grasses. That is not to say that the other performers did not play any recognizable songs, they played such songs as Right Now by Mystic Journeymen, and Beautiful Minds by 3MG but the rest of the show seemed disjointed and slow.
