SPEAK 4 feat. Nosaprise & Screw Tapes, A.D.D., Twenty Eleven, Parking and Fat Tony Mango's March 26, 2011
Aftermath's Saturday afternoon was spent at the beach doing some voluntary biological exploration, which actually consisted more of poking at washed up Manowars with a stick. Needless to say, we were relieved when we could take off our biologist hat and put back on our swagologist fitted cap to survey the lineup of Airborne, Nosaprise, A.D.D, Twenty Eleven, and Parking at Mango's.
After trolling the streets to find some tow-free parking, we walked in Mango's to Nosaprise and his band, Screw Tapes. It was only 10 p.m. and the place was already filled with people, a large amount of high-schoolers presumably there to see Twenty Eleven.
Fat Tony was also onstage behind his laptop, being the cordial host that he is. Nosaprise delivered an expressive set, rapping, playing the guitar, and even getting behind the keyboard to perform a song he'd never performed before.
Tony kept the crowd entertained between sets with Atmosphere, Alicia Keys, and Das Racist - good looking out - before A.D.D. joined him on stage. Fat Tony grabbed a microphone and remained on stage for A.D.D.'s set, acting as a hype man and screaming out, "AY-DEE-DEEEEEEEE!" between songs. A.D.D., the son of the late Houston rap legend Big Mello, is as intriguing as he is high-energy; although his set was shorter than we would have liked, it was the high point of the night.
By the time Twenty Eleven took the stage, it became clear that the influx of people who had arrived in the past half hour were there to see them. Twenty Eleven is a group of swagged-out kids who combine rock and hip-hop - not in the post-grunge, angry white dude way, but a very unified, perceptive fashion.
We readily contributed to the "Swag!" and "Woop!" chants and stood in the back, watching the crowd get disorderly while some of the band members' parents danced behind them. The rapping was on point, but the singing was what really impressed us.