Saturday October 3rd proved to be a stellar evening of music. To start the evening I was at 529 in the East Atlanta Village to catch my man Arablak open up the night for the A3C hip hop festival. Shortly after he went off stage I got word that my people Odist were setting up on stage and I rushed over to Drunken Unicorn to catch their set at their EP release show.

Lets start with Arablak. A good friend of mine that I have been working with as an engineer and producer for the past couple of years, Arablak aka Jermaine Edmonds, has been doing random shows down here in Atlanta, typically being on nights that my band 13 Day Mission has a show. That said I’ve been unable to catch his live set until last Saturday at the A3C festival.

A3C is a HUGE Hip Hop festival that is held once a year in Atlanta. There are over 100 artists that perform at several venues all located in the same area, over the course of 3 days. Its massive. In the short time I was there I met quite a few big names, the one I was most excited about was getting to meet J Dillas uncle Herm. Dilla is such a legend and his family has such a positive energy that it just brings out the best in everyone around them.

Anyways, Arablak was set to go on first at 529, and its a good thing he did because he got the crowd fired up. Unfortunately they had him start later than he was supposed to, so I didn’t to catch any of the other acts at 529, and I was forced to miss the opening acts over at Drunken Unicorn.

Either way, Arablak blew it up. I’ve known he had the jams deep inside him and I’ve heard all his studio work many times. It was a treat to get to see him perform live with a sound system as crushing as the one at 529. It was also nice to see that his hard work around town has been paying off as I was definitely not the only one singing along to all of his songs. The venue was packed to the max and I could barely move other than throwing my hands in the air and dancing with the people in my immediate vicinity.

Enough typing, check out these two videos(from my understanding the dude in the red hat in the front is one of the biggest supporters of hip hop in Atlanta):

Not 5 minutes after he was off stage I got a text saying that Odist was playing so I hustled over to DU only to find they had not even set up yet, but at least I didn’t miss anything.

This was their EP release and there was definitely a good crowd there. Graham Yoder of the Atlanta band Jungol was a guest guitarist with them on a few songs and totally ripped it up. Sarah destroyed the drums. I’ve seen her play a number of times and she always rocks it out, but this time she really let it all out. I can’t stress enough how much of a amazing musician Jason is. He is definitely one of the best bass players that I’ve seen playing out in Atlanta and together he and Sarah make up a MEAN rhythm section.

The show was great, the new music is HUGE for a two piece, and Graham stepping in for some of the older material from when they were a 3 piece couldn’t have been better. Again enough of the type, check out this video:

To hear more from the groups mentioned in this post check out:

http://www.myspace.com/arablakmusic
http://www.myspace.com/enjoyodist
http://www.myspace.com/jungolband