Aesop Rock on Tour (photos + tour dates)

Based on Sunday’s show at DC’s 9:30 Club, I’ll call this one of the must-see tours of the summer. Dark Time Sunshine started off the evening with a comparatively low-key set. Michael Martinez did his best to prime the crowd for the evening as producer/beatmaker Zavala worked melodic magic at the back of the stage. Martinez claimed to get goosebumps from Zavala’s captivating beats — an effect not lost on the crowd. Next up was Edison, whose instrumental hip-hop provided a palate cleanser, of sorts. Equipped with a Monome 256, a laptop and not much else, he exhibited incredible dexterity and precision. In between numbers, he offered humorous stage banter, including verbose song titles and “interpretations” of songs with no lyrics.

The headlining set was an embarrassment of riches. As expected, Aesop Rock performed several tracks from Skelethon. Yet Rob Sonic also contributed solo material from his upcoming album, DJ Big Wiz performed a scratch demo and composed a beat extemporaneously, and both joined Aesop Rock for songs from last year’s exceptional Hail Mary Mallon album Are You Gonna Eat That? The highlight of an already ridiculously crowd-pleasing evening was the encore. Aesop Rock asked the audience how far back into his career they wanted to go, and Labor Days and Daylight from 2001-2002 received the most applause. After marveling that so many old fans were present, he launched into a medley of “Night Light” and “Daylight”. Below are photographs and tour dates.

TOUR DATES

Aug 9 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater

Aug 10 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s

Aug 11 Austin, TX – Mohawk

Aug 13 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theater

Aug 14 Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theater

Aug 15 San Diego, CA – Belly Up

Aug 30 Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst

Aug 31 Bakersfield, CA – B Ryder’s

Sept 1 Las Vegas, NV – LVCS

Sept 2 Los Angeles, CA – F–k Yeah Fest

Sept 4 Reno, NV – Knitting Factory

Sept 7 Spokane, WA – A Club

Sept 8 Yakima, WA – The Seasons

Sept 10 Eugene, OR- WOW Hall

Sept 12 Arcata, CA – Van Duzer Theatre @ Humboldt State

Sept 13 Sacremento, CA – Ace Of Spades

Sept 14 Chico, CA – El Rey Theatre

Sept 16 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore