First off, I had planned to go to the Ottawa one for a while and a bunch of guys I lived with were on board. Then I found out that they’d be playing Peterborough on the Sunday, and logistically that made more sense [if not going to both shows]. One by one though, everyone started dropping…mostly since it was Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend. On the day, the last dude who was coming had to drop to spend time with his family, and not finding anyone else with tickets, I ended up going alone.
I left to Peterborough 2 hours earlier and got there bout 15 minutes early for door. Since Atherton was the only one I knew there, I hung out with him for a bit outside. After a bit, I got in a conversation with these young guys who seemed to have only got into CL recently. I told em that it was gonna be a hype show especially if Pack and Stan were there [the unnamed “Special Guests]. As they weren’t too familiar with the the rest of the QN5 roster I told that they were in for a better show than they knew.
Anyways, we eventually went in and the show started. I’d heard S-Cape Artist on a track with Atherton and he sounded decent. His set wasn’t bad but I feel he lacked a bit of charisma on stage…but he seems like a young guy, so fair play to him.
I thought Atherton did really well at entertaining and warming up the crowd. I always recommend people check him out. Definitely one of the best Ontario based emcees I know of. I was glad he made some new fans.
Next up was Substantial. That’s when the crowd started getting more into the show. His voice sounded a bit beat up, but he still put on an awesome show and I was happy to hear some shit I hadn’t heard before.
Next up came Pack. No disrespect to anyone else on QN5, but I really think he puts on the best performance. He always seems to get the energy going and make the crowd part of it. I love the irony of girls trying to get all up on him during “Suzie”. I also thought it was pretty funny that at the end of his set, after finishing up “Stomp” he got up on a table at the side of the crowd looking like he was ready to go for a stage dive and didn’t go for it. I may be wrong, but I think it had something to do with the fact that everyone underneath him looked to be fairly small, young teenagers.
Finally, Cunninlynguists took the stage. They told us that Natti got caught up at the border, which sucked. Although, since they skipped over his verses, it seemed like they got to get into more of their songs than they would’ve. The crowd was going crazy for the entire set, especially these two dudes next to me who were jumping up and down for every song, even the slower ones. Deacon also sounded a bit raw, but pulled through the show really well. They kept the crowd hyped up all the way through, and everyone there seemed to have a great time.
One thing I love about the two QN5 shows I’ve been to [the other one having been in Geneva last year], is that it seemed like despite most of em not being too familiar with the label [apart from CL in most cases], they seem to get really engaged with all of the artists as if they had been die hard fans for years. Maybe its just that being from NY, I’m used to no one really getting into shows, but I think QN5 puts on more that the majority of other Hiphop artists I’ve seen. I was really glad to see one of the guys I had just met turn to me while Stan and Pack were on stage and say “Who are these guys again? They’re awesome.” As a fan, I spend so much time telling people about how good all the artists are, it’s great to see that when people hear the music, it entirely sells itself.
Thanks to everyone for putting on the best show I’ve ever seen in Canada. And also the guy who arranged it, DJ Who…everyone there was saying he is doing leaps and bounds to put Peterborough [a relatively small city] on the scene for quality Hiphop acts.
Heres some pictures I got…unfortunately, for some reason my camera died right before CL came on. Ironically, my video camera died last time before their set:
The guy, DJ Who, who set up the show, also put up some good videos from it:
staffMoody Blue said on Oct 09, 2008:
TheCrob said on Oct 11, 2008:
TheCrob said on Oct 15, 2008: