I interrupt this regularly scheduled programming to offer you my first, ever, giveaway. In honor of my 27th birthday, I decided to give YOU a present.
If you’ve been following my blog since all along, you know that music is an obsession of mine. There was a 3-year period after college where I spent all of my disposable income on concert tickets to the 9:30 club, because it is the single best venue I have *ever* been to and music is my life/makes the world go ’round.
Me with head phones on jamming out at age 2:
And a legitimately NON -posed, CANDID photo my bff took of me at a bar a few years ago because while other humans talk to each other and have conversations (see left) I am in my own world dancing to the music. As Nate Dogg put it, “Music and Me.”
I’ve seen concerts at a lot of the places where you see concerts in other cities- Roseland Ballroom in NYC, House of Blues in Boston, various places in Miami- and every time I’m kind of just embarrassed at how much LESS awesome the concert is because it’s not at the 9:30 club.
I was born and raised in DC and one of the first times I ever went to the 9:30 Club for a concert, I was like 17 and going to see– get this– YELLOW CARD!!!!!!!!! Haha I still love them and that nostalgic first album of theirs so f*cking much. OCEAN AVENUE? SO GOOD. SO GOOD. The harmony when they sing “we would walk on the beach in OUR. BARE. FEET”– so classic. Reminds me of the scene in Step Brothers where the family is harmonizing to Sweet Child of Mine in the car.
I was going there to meet up with my crush, this dude that I had met in Shakespeare class. HAHAHAH I literally sound like the biggest loser EVER, but it was actually the opposite, obviously. Literally we were the only 2 cool humans in our Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship and he was super emo and introduced me to Brand New and Yellowcard and Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional. Holy facccccccccccck I listened to the Brand New Album on repeat non stop- IT’S SO CREEPY AND AMAZING AND WEIRD AND HAUNTING AND PSYCHO. Sic Transit Gloria was like my favorite song ever. “SO DIE YOUNG AND SAVE YOURSELF!!!” Classic anti-life angry youth screaming in a girly voice. So hot.
So anyways, he was going to the Yellowcard concert, and me, Ellie, Kate, and Cait were at Cait’s house in Kensington Maryland. I couldn’t drive yet because I didn’t get my license till I was like 18 years old out of sheer laziness; and at this point in time, AKA TEN YEARS AGO, the area where the 9:30 club is was still an area where our parents were like, ‘you’ll get murdered if you go there!’ hahaha I mean not really but as parents they would gasp and be like, “THE 9:30 CLUB?! YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY NOT GOING THERE WITHOUT AN ESCORT.”Oooobbbbviously we had no fear, and lied to all parents involved, and packed into Ellie’s explorer and like….probably printed out Map Quest directions since at the time no body had smart phones or Google Maps so we definitely were still in the era of legitimately PRINTING MAP QUEST hahahhaha I’m laughing just thinking about that. HOW ANCIENT.
What’s so funny is like, I have butterflies just typing this because I remember how CONFUSED we all were getting down there. We had no. idea. where we were. None. It felt like we were driving 2 hours into nowhere’s-ville because everyone lived in the suburbs (even though it’s actually about a 15 minute drive). And thinking about, it’s almost unfathomable to me how far that car ride felt and how little we knew about where we were; because now, I live about 3 blocks from the 9:30 Club and it’s my regular jaunt and of course now the area where it is is like the most desirable area in DC and homes are like 5 million dollars to buy and the Hiltons (as in Hilton hotels) have 2 of the coolest venues sitting right there (in fact one is IN the 9:30 Club– Satellite Room).
Needless to say the Yellow Card concert was epic. I stayed out ’till like 2 am; got a ride home from one of my crush’s friends; snuck INTO my house undetected; and took a math final exam the next day and got an A. Don’t worry about it, I WAS A #LEGEND in high school. It was the night before a final exam (it was December, the semester was ending) and I just straight went to a ragey Yellowcard concert on a Tuesday night. And that is why I’m never having children.
All of that is part of my sheer memory, but I just looked it up for fun confirmation and the concert indeed took place in December– on the 10th of the month in the year 2 thousand and 3, to be exact. The Fall of my senior year of high school. Exactly 21 days later, I would stay up at a Kinkos finishing and sending college applications via The Standard Application on the very last day they were allowed. And 3 weeks earlier, December 10th, 2003, age 17, I attended a mosh-pitting concert with my crush and then crushed a mathematical final exam the next day in the year when I needed to get into college. I take back what I said– I am having kids because I want them to be exactly like that. Sorry I party.
I will never forget that night, and the way it epitomized friendship– all my girls piling into the car for this thrilling adventure down to the club in the ‘bad part of town’ to support me in my romantic endeavor to win my crush over. (We only ended up making out once– not that night either, and he blatantly ended up being in love with Cait because she is gorgeous and has piercing blue eyes and every guy would always fall in love with her so I’d tell her to look ugly around my crushes and she would because that’s what friends do except it never worked. I’d literally be like “you’re not allowed to shower, don’t put on any make-up, and wear a fugly outfit” and she’d be like “obbbbbbviously.”)
Throughout the rest of high school, I would go back to the 9:30 Club constantly– especially for O.A.R. concerts. That’s cause homeboys were…literally our homeboys, because they were from the area. This was back when their shit wasn’t over-produced and toolish and Game of Poker was the greatest song EVERRRRRR. God damn I had good times at those O.A.R. concerts.
Post college, from age 22-25 my social life was basically going to concerts at 9:30. See this post for an example http://thehyperbalist.com/2011/02/03/ohdeargod/
In that time span, I saw…..
- Florence and The Machine when nobody knew who she was
- Wiz Khalifa- pretty much still when no one knew who he was
- Ratatat (one of Alex and I’s first dates together!)
- Miike Snow
- ADELE (I die)
- Cold War Kids
- Santigold
- Lykke Li
- Little Dragon
- The XX
- SBTRKT
- Girl Talk
- CSS
- Beach House
- Crystal Castles
- And one million others
Crystal Castles brings me to where this story is coming full circle.
One of the single best shows I’ve ever seen was that concert– where their opening act was someone or something (I didn’t know yet) that I’d never heard of.
It was THREE years ago.
And his name was Rusko.
And when he began performing,
MY WORLD WAS SHATTERED. My mind was blown.
It was the most fun I have ever had. It was this DIRTY-ASS, HEADY, HYPNOTIC, POUNDING, SICK, GARAGE DUBSTEP.
And he was completely, pathologically insane.
He actually takes the energy that someone like Macklemore has and quadRUPLES it. He is natural crack. The way he jumps on stage, and moves, and dances, and gets the crowd going…he has this aura and energy about him like he’s an excited 16 year old boy except the beats he is creating and jamming to are nastttttty. And he always performs in socks. Hahhaa white athletic ankle socks, with his muscular shapely calves (because all he does is jump up and down), and jean shorts that go down to mid calf. It’s hilarious.
I can honestly say that going to a Rusko show is an experience I wish upon every human being before their death. I really mean that. I am not being hyperbolic. I think a bucket list of life, regardless of musical taste, is being AT a Rusko show–at 9:30 club specifically–and experiencing his energy and music. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. His stage set is SO FUCKING COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s these giaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant Hollywood Starlet-type letter-lights that spell Rusko and BOUNCE up and down on hydraulics doing different amazing things depending on the beat.
As he was performing, I was looking around, and there were all these club-chicks totally zoned out and ROCKING out to him, and I asked one of them about him and realized he had legit GROUPIES. Like I was discovering him for the first time in 2010 but this chick said she’d been following him around London and THE WORLD and had been to every single one of his shows. And then we danced together for the rest of the night even though she was definitely on like 9 Mollys and I had to google what a Molly was after hearing every rapper ever mention it in every song ever. For a while I legit thought Rick Ross was saying “Pop a Miley”, referencing Miley Cyrus because she did Salvia and other drugs.
From that point onward, I was a Rusko addict. I went to 2 more of his shows at 9:30 Club, and then last May, Alex and I went to Miami to visit my family. Upon walking in the door to my aunt’s house at 2 am on a Friday, my 13 year old cousin goes “Alina, I’m going to Rusko tomorrow, want to go?” And I was like “IS THE POPE CATHOLIC YEAH I WANT TO FUCKING GO TO A RUSKO SHOW IT WILL BE MY 5TH” (I looked so cool to my 13 year old cousin, JK he didn’t give a fuckkkkkk and probably thought I was less cool for saying that, it was so Amy Poehler as the mom in Mean Girls of me); and at 2 in the morning Alex and I signed on to live nation and bought tickets to a Rusko show occurring less than 24 hours later in a city we were visiting for 3 days total.
But guess what, IT PALED IN COMPARISON TO WHAT RUSKO IS LIKE AT 9:30 CLUB BECAUSE 9:30 CLUB IS THE BEST VENUE IN THE COUNTRY, SORRY EVERYONE ELSE.
My love for 9:30 and for Rusko has been welllll-documented on this blog, and now, I am giving away TWO TICKETS to the Rusko Show at 9:30 Club this coming April. It’s Thursday, April 18th at 10:00 p.m, and the tickets are $40 eachhhh which is expensive for 9:30 Club aka indicative of how legit he is. You really just need to take my enthusiastic word for it that a Rusko concert is LEGENDARY. IT’S THE MOST UNIQUE SHOW YOU’LL EVER GO TO. YOU HAVE TO GO.
So if you live in DC, and want TWO FREE TICKETS to see Rusko at this epic venue in our nation’s capital, you need to:
Follow me on twitter: @TheHyperbalist;
and simply leave a comment on this here post with your name! (and email, so I can email you if you win!)
You get an extra entry into the pot if you tweet about the giveaway with hashtag #Rusko930. I’m not going to give you any toolish parameters about what you need to say in the tweet, like “I JUST ENTERED THIS GIVEAWAY with The Hyperbalist!” (I would never make you do that). Just be a human and say anything you feel like saying about it.
I have never once done a giveaway. I would only ever do one about something I feel this passionately about.
RUSKO
IS
THE
SHIT
And honestly you’ll look really cool. Rusko is like…cool, and still, unfathomably so, relatively ‘off the radar’. It’s not like going to see like….Will.I.Am. HAHAHAH who has ever bought a ticket to see Will.I.Am? I hope no one that’s reading this blog. Or even a band that’s legitimately good but known by all. Like Mumford & Sons- amazing, but everyone knows them so it’s not news if you go to their concert. RUSKO? NO BODY EVEN KNOWS WHAT THE WORD IS. PEOPLE DON’T EVEN REALIZE HE’S A HUMAN. THEY DON’T SAY ‘WHO IS RUSKO,’THEY SAY “WHAT’S RUSKO?” So you’re cool if you know who he is.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE GIVEAWAY I SINCERELY HOPE YOU WIN.
And if you don’t win and/or want to buy tickets, here the link! http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/eventV2/220063?utm_source=hyperbalist&wrKey=61FD2C11DB68F1080A129DC216B25CE9
HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY TO ME AND YOU!!!
I’d probably wear this:
*PS. You guys….I just listened to Ocean Avenue again, and like….what the fuck YELLOW CARD IS SO GOOD! IT’S SO HIGH SCHOOL. “There’s a place off Ocean Avennue, where I used to sit and TAWK with you, we were both 16 and it FELTSORIGHT, sleepin’ all day and stayin up all………..NIII-HIGHHHHHT.” And the violin at the end?! I remember at the show, the violinist was SO SICK, he stood on a cube and just like……played his violin but would get all acrobatic and gymnastic and do back flips and shit with the violin. He was the hot one of the group. WHERE ARE YOU THESE DAYS YELLOWCARD?!?!?!
