Guru Show Review

Posted by: Dave Berry | Mar 27, 09

If you know anything about hip-hop then you already know of Guru. If you don’t then you have officially missed the boat. He was the lyricist for the iconic group known as Gang Starr and also for his side project which is known as Jazzmatazz. Gang Starr is no more (as far as I know) but Jazzmatazz is rocking strong. I had the pleasure of taking in Jazzmatazz in Denver on 1/23/09 and it was a helluva show.

The show went down at the Walnut Room which is in this sketchy area north of the LoDo nightlife junk-show in downtown Denver on 31st street. Unofficially the neighborhood is called “the warehouse district” but it might as well be called “sketchy-ass place to party” on account of a few bars and clubs tucked here and there amongst throngs of homeless guys who hit you up for beer money and smokes at just about every corner. I had never been to the Walnut Room before so I didn’t know what I was in for. The layout of the place is pretty cool; up front there is a restaurant and the actual venue is in the back. The venue area is a totally separate from the restaurant, similar to Bender’s Tavern, so the yuppie dinner crowd doesn’t have to be exposed to music that they probably wouldn’t want to hear, let alone pay a cover for. En route to the show I called Time (emcee for local act Calm. and one of the opening acts for this show) and he told me to get down there fast because it was selling out. I asked him if he could just get two tickets for me and my girl before they sold out. If it wasn’t for Time’s fast action and debit card this review wouldn’t exist because he informed me that right after he bought the tickets the show did sell out. Whew. Mad props to Time for that one.

We got in no problem but missed just about all of the opening act who’s name I didn’t catch because they didn’t say it as they exited the stage. Oh well. From what I heard they weren’t noteworthy anyway. Calm. took the stage next and lit that place up. I’ve been following Calm. for a long time now and they straight up rock at every show that they do. They played my current favorite song titled Ginger’s Drumming With Celery off of Time’s latest solo titled The Fantastic Reality and that damn near made my night, and Jazzmatazz hadn’t even got on stage yet. The only drag about Calm. that night was that they didn’t have any “Makeup, Lipstick, Steve Buschemi” shirts in my size to sell me. I’ve been trying to get one of those for a while now and I think I may have missed the boat on that one. Calm. ripped it for a good 40+ minutes and didn’t miss a beat.

After a prolonged break it was time for the main event; Guru and Jazzmatazz. I’m very familiar with the old school Gang Starr jams but when it comes to Jazzmatazz I’m under-educated. I do know Jazzmatazz #3 thanks to a college roommate pretty well but that’s it. I was in for quite a pleasant surprise. Guru took the stage with his producer/backing emcee Solar, a trumpet player, a flute player, and a DJ. They promised “classic after classic after classic” and they delivered with extreme energy and professionalism. It was easy to tell that these guys love what they do and have a fun time doing it because they all had smiles on their faces. They played songs from all across the Jazzmatazz catalog and mixed in a few Gang Starr classics as well. I suppose Guru will never be able to be just Guru, he’ll be “Guru from Gang Starr” but clearly he doesn’t mind. It was totally rad to hear those old Gang Starr songs backed up with a live trumpet and a flute.

I don’t know how old Guru is but I know that he’s older than I am and he’s starting to look it, but when he’s rocking he doesn’t show it at all. I saw Gang Starr once 11 years ago and Guru hasn’t slowed down one bit. The man is a true legend in the hip-hop world and at this point he might as well be immortal. Yes, he is that good.

 Sadly the Walnut Room doesn’t allow cameras in the venue so getting pics of the show was impossible, but getting a contact high was not. Either security didn’t care that people were blazing it up or the stoners were being very sneaky. I didn’t notice them being too sneaky. Hey, what do you expect from a hip-hop show, right?

One last note on the Walnut Room; the sound quality in the venue is great. There were two sound guys manning the board and they did a killer job. They could teach the hacks at the Ogden Theater a thing or two about running a board.

If you ever get the chance to see Guru then you must take it. You won’t regret it.

Jazzmatazz can be found online at http://www.gurusjazzmatazz.net and on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/gurusjazzmatazz 

Calm. is located at http://www.dirtylaboratory.com and on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/calmmusic

    Shred hard,
    Dave Berry