Show Review: Capital Garage Gets Down with Local Hip-Hop July 21, 2007

By Aaris A. Schroeder
Editor-In-Chief
August 23, 2007

A garage effort as Roper, Verbal Venom, Dirt Merchants and Shades of Gray all rocked the stage together on July 21, 2007 at Capitol Garage in downtown Sacramento, CA.

These emcees, musicians and producers, all had the same conscious, positive vibe which kept a small on-going crowd throughout the evening.

Verbal Venom started the evening, mixing a Goodie Mobb and C-Lo style of hip-hop beats with a familiar Sacramento-bred lyricism. With lyrics smooth enough to spread on butter and beats hot enough to pop in your microwave, it’s no wonder songs like, “Ice Cream” are semi-local underground hits.

Roper performed next, solo. Dramatizing his piece by waving his hands high in the air to motivate the crowd to move to his self-made beats., Roper was not only able to bring an outside crowd inside but get them back on the dance floor moving their bodies to some real hip-hop.

Dirt Merchants bring the elements of hip-hop to light as producer Bennett and DJ Duke 1 draw fat beats and emcee Madix seamless lyrics on the walls of Capitol Garage. Both conscious and political, this fantastic hip-hop act and super DJ made the Garage go to work.

Shades of Gray pumped the crowd with a live ensemble of Mark [drums], Jeff Hutting [guitar] and Dan Preciado [bass] and BaldMatt and Luckey ripping the floor up by the tile and serving dishes of ganja through their words. The crowd received a contact high and was seemingly down for the Shades of Gray as a mosh pit was just around the corner. Head-banging and body-moving at its finest.