Ever since the other week’s Radio Rubber Room Presents! show at the Camel, I have been wracking my brain for local bands that have had more successful attempts at encouraging audience participation than MC Chicken, Too Indecent, and The Price Exsperament.
Ever since the other week’s Radio Rubber Room Presents! show at the Camel, I have been wracking my brain for local bands that have had more successful attempts at encouraging audience participation than MC Chicken, Too Indecent, and The Price Exsperament.
There have been many a Richmond rock groups that have managed to get feet stomping with a popular radio cover, but the trio of projects that played on Wednesday were mostly original. Not only that, but the night’s shows contained the weirdest combination of sexy and strange hip hop, featuring brass, chicken beats, and bars.
First came The Price Exsperament – a three-piece hip hop group with a drummer, bassist, and one of the most enthusiastic frontmen to ever bless the stage. His talents weren’t limited to the stage either; he periodically took his activity into the audience to flirt with onlookers and coax the crowd into yelling along. Their set included a surprising – but spectacularly engaging – sample of “Who Are You” by the Who, except with overlapped rapping instead of Roger Daltrey’s original lyrics. I thought it was also fittingly ironic that their bassist was just as stoic and talented as John Entwistle. Though the crowd was a bit thin to begin with, the band pressed on with boundless personality that is easily destined for a stadium. The only gripe one could make would be that they would be unstoppable with a brass section.
Next was Too Indecent: a Richmond-based four piece that describes their own sound as a smashed-open piñata once filled with blues, rock, reggae, ska, and hip hop. The crew wore their interests on their sleeves, spitting lines about drinking all night and not giving a hoot about the institution. The set continued stirring up the hypest beats and bopping, including a cover of Gimme The Loot by The Notorious B.I.G.
As a top off to the groovy night, MC Chicken stepped up to the plate.
This was the most baffling ensemble I’ve ever seen for several reasons: for starters, I was warned by a friend before the show that a music blog had once called MC Chicken the ‘worst thing to ever come out of Richmond’. This was 100% wrong.
The kookiness that oozed out of the songs was not just an elaborate display of irony – they were objectively catchy. Firstly, it’s hard not to dig a good brass section (trombone, trumpet, saxophone… the whole nine yards). The frontman – though he looked remarkably like Charlie Day – also sang like an honest to god chicken. And if that isn’t confusing enough, I was pretty bamboozled as to how a bumpy lookin’ rooster impersonator somehow had the sickest beats to ever make people lose their minds. If you still can’t wrap your head around the kind of ‘weird’ that the group brought to the stage, the band’s Facebook bio reads “M.C.Chicken was born in a dirty bucket of grease and has been entertaining audiences of all ages with blessings from the lord ever since he ate 7 chickens.”
Here in the 21st century, one might have the suspicion that music is running out of new sounds and scenes to create – MC Chicken and his gang of artists, however, have blazed the instrumental frontier by creating a genre that blends jazz, reggae, hip hop, and poultry. But hey, the best way to judge is by seeing them yourself. From what I can tell by the band’s page, their social media presence is essentially nonexistent save for some memes posted sometime in the spring – but that doesn’t stop me from looking forward to their next show, whenever it is. MC Chicken is officially the best group in Richmond for literally and figuratively shaking a tail feather.
If you’re regretting getting funky with the fowl, have no fear – Radio Rubber Room Presents! is hosting another fun-filled, all ages, free show on November 30th featuring My Way’s EP release, as well as Lightfields, Sarah White, and Carpet Pissers. Don’t chicken out – grab your friends, come by The Camel, and forget about the last few weeks of political craziness.
