Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

My friend Laura Elías de la Torre (otherwise known as "Dr. Laura") invited me to see Public Enemy. After one false start (she thought the show was Tuesday night), we made it down to see them on Wednesday night. We skipped two of the opening acts, who were so inconsequential that they were not even mentioned on the Rialto's website.

This is the first time I have ever been patted down for a show. Funny, when the Church played at the Rialto, they didn't bother with such things, so I was able to bring my gat to that show.

Like I said, we missed the first two acts, which I was told was fortunate since they fell into the "booties and booze" (the phrase used by a friend who saw them) style of rap that is popular these days.

X-Clan took the stage with no fanfare whatsoever. No introduction, no applause, they just started. I hadn't heard much from them before, but they impressed me. They have a definite message that is probably best summed up by the splash on their website which features pictures of Mohandas Gandhi and Frederick Douglass. As is the tradition with the more politcal wing of hip hop, there is a guy on stage that has no musical job. One member of the band's only job was to wave a huge rastafarian flag.

There was a bit of a lull before Public Enemy took the stage. They were introduced by a woman from Hot 98.3 who was roundly booed (I address the possible reasons on my other blog). It was still a few minutes before they took the stage. The interim was filled with a sound montage of phrases from different PE songs ("Hear the drummer get wicked...Still they got me like Jesus..."). Chuck D, Professor Griff, Johnny Juice (an early member of the Bomb Squad, taking over for the injured Terminator X) and an actual band (called the Banned) took the stage for a mash up of "Welcome to the Terror Dome" and "Bring the Noise."

Flavor Flav came out later to racous applause from the crowd, most of whom were not old enough to know him from anything other than his VH1 show.

Oh yes, the S1Ws were there, armed with katanas rather than the usual Uzis.


Unfortunately, I had to leave early (I'm an old man now), but not before Chuck and Flav led the crowd in a chant of "F*ck George Bush" and "F*ck Dick Cheney." Such words for our commander in chief (and George too)...I was so shocked.

The guys put on the best rock show (yes...I called it rock) that I've seen in a long time.


So, have I told any of you that I hung with Chuck D at the Democratic National Convention?

I had to be on the convention floor in the afternoons for some special program (which turned out to be me on TV for about fourty seconds, which in turn led to my aunt causing an incident in a restaurant). The acts that would play that night would do sound checks in the afternoon. Carole King, John Mellancamp, all sorts of people would be out there on the stage doing their final run through. Sometimes folks would stop what they were doing and watch for a while.

Until the last day when Willie Nelson practiced singing "America." Nothing got done in that place. All of us stood right near the stage and just gaped. I looked next to me and who was there but the man known to the students at Roosevelt High School as Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, the incredible, the rhyme animal Chuck D.

I waited until the song was over before I played fanboy.

"I was the music director for my college radio station and I made sure you were always in rotation..."

"Hey, man, thanks." and he introduced me to his friend.

We talked for a bit and someone said, "Hey, Mitch McConnell is here."

There were often Republican officials there, brought in by the networks to do commentary.

"What is he doing here, let's find him."

Chuck and I looked around for a couple of minutes. I wonder how that confrontation would have gone.

I told the folks in the delegation that I had met Chuck D, no one knew who the heck he was. Even the twenty and thirty somethings were clueless. I swear to God, sometimes I feel like I'm the closest thing to hip the Democrats have got.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.