Looking back at GZA’s 1995 East Coast hip hop renaissance masterpiece, Liquid Swords its obvious that its dark samples and varying subject matter still retains the power to yank you head-first into its insular and matchless soundscape. The Genius’ rabbit hole of subject matters (ranging from chess, inner-city crime, philosophy, and the Asian cinema cult film Shogun Assassin) serve much more than pop culture detritus, so its no wonder that All Tomorrow’s Parties and Pitchfork Media asked GZA to play Swords during last year’s Don’t Look Back event. Though I didn’t attend, I’m sure Swords’ dense and idiomatic eclecticism fit well in its position at the festival - sandwiched between Slint’s Spiderland and Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. The Independent show this week was part of Genius’ own revisiting of the album on his own tour.

Despite the particularly tough task of recreating such an intricate album on the road GZA towed the line between being rehearsed and retaining the visceral power the material needs. Killah Priest came out at the beginning of the Swords set and stayed on stage until the end. GZA was congenial to the last, maintaining that he loves his fans and just to prove it, he sang in the crowd for non-Swords songs during the second half and even started over after ‘Liquid Swords’ when the wrong Shogun Assassin sample intro didn’t play before ‘Duel of the Iron Mic’.

Before GZA played the Seattle indie sampling hip hop upstart duo, Blue Scholars spit their devastating rhymes after a rather boring set by DJ Boogie. To exacerbate the problem, Boogie’s stale dubtronic free jazz scratch-fest returned for an additional 30 minutes after Blue Scholars vacated. Scattered boos could be heard from the crowd. Blue Scholars played a wide range of material and dropped some news songs off their digital-release only EP BUTTER&GUNS$ (April 26). Despite being whipsmart as solo artists Geo and Sabzi proved to be equally adept as collaborators on stage. “Loyalty” featured some great synthesized vocal samples and an apparent love of the emotive qualities of soul music. 

The Scholars started with a song that used the guitar riff most recently heard in Green Day’s ‘Hitchin’ a Ride’. Later on they used a sample from Modest Mouse’s ‘Float On’ and M.I.A.’s ‘Paper Planes’. Both swooped along nicely. The rest of the set featured ‘Second Chapter’, ‘Opening Salvo’, ‘The Ave’, ‘Loyalty’, a spoken word freestyle (something GZA failed to deliver when asked by the audience), ‘North By Northwest’ and ‘No Rest for the Weary’.

The Scholars put on a fine show that upstaged even some of GZA’s showmanship during the lagging second half. During his run of Liquid Swords everyone was listening and rapping along with him. Many times GZA would point the mic out to the crowd to finish lines and they did with gusto. GZA seemed pleased that so many diehard fans showed up. One person in the crowd gave GZA a chess piece (a queen). There was one nasty instance where the Genius had to play schoolteacher and scold someone who was talking while he performed. He explained, “I’m not just rapping up here I’m also watching you guys and feeding off your vibes.”

The vibe the crowd got from GZA was fairly stellar. Hearing terse lines like, “I represent from midnight to high noon / I don’t waste ink, nigga, I think / I drop megaton bombs more faster than ya blink” pointed squarely at the chinks in modern hip hop’s armor. GZA had fun later on with fans listing off other classic hip hop and rap acts like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets. Some humbugs would see this as boring, wanting to cut straight to the music but it showcased the rare quality of a performer that can make his audience feel welcome. The song selection towards the end was fairly on point, ranging from the silly trucker rap, ‘Breaker Breaker’ to two songs off Liquid Swords just for the audience. 

There were times when GZA forgot his lines and had to start over fresh towards the end. Maybe due to all the alcohol he was consuming but when it counted his Liquid Swords material still had that dark sheen its always kept.