GRIEVES

Venue: First Avenue

City: Minneapolis, MN

Date: November 24th 2017

Prize Fighter

Bless me audiophiles for I have sinned. It has been 13 days since my last concert confession.

God damn that scrawny white kid can move a crowd...is what I said when I saw Grieves the second time in Minneapolis at First Avenue. It was the first hip hop show I had seen since I moved back to Minneapolis (for the fourth time). Getting reacquainted was absolutely requisite after being away from it for 8 years. A lot of new faces and voices had been added to the pile; some blew up, some faded into the background and some are still doing the same thing they were at the same speed they were 8 years ago (yes, you Atmosphere). Some grew up a bit, became parents, made families and because of that changed their narrative and their perspective; some more drastically than others. Grieves was a great songwriter the first time I saw him in Las Vegas at the Warped Tour (...judge away, the tickets were free) but was still gaining traction and building a fan base and was still figuring out how to wield his scrawny bod on stage. Cut to 8 years later, a couple albums and several tours later; and he had his shit on point. A 120 lb crowd-commander, two tanks of fire and flow strapped to his back and well crafted beats...it was a fckn sight to see.