a weekend with @kindredthefam @kindredthewife & @zzaje in #chicago

so my favorite musical couple? these folks here.

hey, boos, hey! gather ’round, it’s storytime.

so as i said before, i have folks who play for kindred the family soul. this generally bodes well for my life of poverty (currently induced by grad school).* but even aside from that, kindred & i have a lil history.

i first learned about them while listening to tiffany bacon on power99 radio while i was at college in philly [insert memories of amazing sunday night radio]. my time in philly also included volunteering with the foundation community arts initiative. in 2001, we co-hosted lovefest 2k1** as part of penn’s annual valentine’s day celebration. ms. dannah & i were responsible for artist recruitment. so we snuck into the black lily, lol! not only did we see jazmine sullivan & erykah badu’s sister, nayrok udab, but we also learned of kindred. we were sold as soon as they hit the stage. they rocked houston hall 42 kinda ways. a couple years later, i was at TLA for their album release party. i’ve seen them perform at least once in every city i’ve lived in since then. <end storytime>

he gon’ be mad ‘cuz he didn’t like this picture, lol!

last weekend, though? best. weekend. evarrr. my big bro, damon, came to chi-town with the crew this time around & we hung out every day he was here. \o/ now, i knew kindred had the show on thursday, but the saturday show was a bonus! again: \o/ the only sadz: a) i didn’t have my camera for the first night & b) the weekend is over.

thursday, i spent the evening at the shrine for the first show. the opener was a homegrown artist named tarrey torae.

yeah, i stole this from her twitter profile. who gon’ fight meh?

first of all, she FAHN! second of all, the girl can SANG! i had never heard of her before, but it turns out she’s all over the place: 2 time grammy winner, song writer extraordinaire (john legend, much?), etc., etc. check out her cover of womack & womack:

tarrey is not one of those stand-in-place-and-look-pretty-while-i-sing folks, but i did manage to get a coupla shots. and check her out with local femcee, teefa (WARNING: autoplay. but it’s good.)

and yeah, malik yusef was the host for the night. 1) he fahn, too. 2) he’s a cot damn, FOO!

malik ‘cuttin’ up during an interview w/ tarrey.

really don’t remember what was happening here.

and then the main show started. i lost my front row photo snappin’ spot goin’ to meet damon, but it was a great show, nonetheless. and let me tell you, i almost fell out when i saw aja w/ her fly new haircut. YEW BETTA WERK, MAMA KINDRED!!!

they performed some stuff off the new album, including ‘you got love’ & ‘magic happen’. they also did my fave off the arrival, ‘alright‘, as well as the crowd favorites, ‘rhythm of life’, ‘stars’, & ‘woman first‘. of course, they closed out with ‘far away‘.

(since the audio is suspect, i’m just providing links, rather than uploading here.)

awesome bonus: a painter was there creating a new piece during the show (i LOVE live painting). here’s the result:

i’m so sorry i forgot his name. if you know, drop me a comment!
also: that grey goose looks HUGE in this shot!

on saturday, i found my camera just in time for the jam to move to lorraine dixon park for the taste of WVON (one of the few remaining black owned & operated radio stations in the country). the station had beyoncé & destiny’s child open for them…

what’s really hilarious is that they busted out the actual choreography to ‘girls’ after this ‘love on top’ madness. but f’rell? they brought it for that part. i ain’t eeb’n mad.

a couple of the dancers actually work for WVON, if i understood the PA system correctly. great that folks are willing to get out there & have fun.

so the band opened with ‘alright’ again saturday; i took pics & sang along loudly this time.

hey, fatin!

so listen, i love the shoes, but aja’s legs? they beat anything you’ve got goin’ on right now.

i would be remiss to go any further without showing love to the band, zzajé. they held it down right smoove for both shows.

*pauses for daydreams of sitting in on jam sessions*

(most of) the band: damon, brandon, & marshall

and really? they’re a great group of guys. shoutout to marshall for fussing at me & to brandon for & walking me to the bus stop at dark o’clock! i mean, i woulda been fine, but… *kicks at dirt with toe of shoe*

so at this point, i’m just gonna shake my fist at mercury when it comes to the vidjo (actually, i think i was just too close to the speakers). but as before, i went ahead & uploaded what i have to youtube. you can’t hear them, but they look great! here’s ‘magic happen‘ & ‘stars‘. i think ‘rhythm of life’ was the most coherent of the three, so watch & listen at your own risk, lol: