On paper, Grand Buffet is probably the kind of thing I wouldn't expect to like at all: weird underground hip hop by two white guys from Pittsburgh who have an absurdist sense of humor and like to express leftist ideals with sarcastic exaggerations of the religious right. But they're fucking great at what they do and I love them. Easily one of my favorite live acts. Tom and my friend Mike and I saw them for the first time at different shows all around the same time 3-4 years ago and have been showing up faithfully every time they play Baltimore ever since, which is pretty often. They're tight with a lot of other weird white rappers from Baltimore like Cex and Height and Bow'n'Arrow and have amassed a pretty big following here thanks to countless opening sets where they upstaged the headliner. I don't know if they even get as many people at their shows in Pittsburgh as they do in Baltimore. And on Sunday we were all at the Ottobar to see Grand Buffet headline for once.

I drove up for the show from Delaware after spending Easter with the fam, and got stuck in really heinous traffic and ended up getting there later than I expected to. When I got there, one of the openers, Big In Japan was playing. BIJ is comprised of 3/5ths of Lake Trout, who are a Baltimore band that I've seen live a bunch of times, and the 3 members who are in BIJ are the best thing about Lake Trout, but Big In Japan is generally a lot more laid back and boring. So when Mike challenged me to a game of Ms. Pac Man upstairs, I went and did that during their set. And then while waiting for Grand Buffet at the bar we ran into Tom. Turns out that Tom interviewed GB before the show for a feature in the City Paper that's going to run in a couple months when their new record comes out. All of Grand Buffet's CDs so far have been self-released, but now they're finally on a label with national distro and are putting out a CD/DVD in June featuring a greatest hits of stuff from the previous records. I always kinda wished they'd reissue their amazing trilogy of EPs (Undercover Angels, Cigarette Beach and Pittsburgh Hearts) on one disc, but this should be just as good. Judging from their setlists, they're pretty good at picking out their best material. And their show last night was as awesome as ever. Maybe the only band I've ever seen where the between song banter is as entertaining as the songs. I hope the world's ready for Grand Buffet, if not it's their loss.

Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, Grand Buffet

This entry was posted on Monday, March 28, 2005 at 2:30 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.