The night of September 29th was like any other night except for the fact that is was not like every other night because I got to go to a Big Boi concert and besides the fact that concerts are my shit in general, getting to see the better half of Outkast live is always the realest concert a man (or woman) can get.
Big Boi was originally going on The Shoes For Running tour this summer with (the criminally underrated) Killer Mike but unfortunately he tore his knee ligament at a festival early in the summer in Southern Illinois (nothing good happens in southern Illinois) jumping around on stage. His knee ligament tore due to the fact that he is getting up there (he’s damn near 40) in years and once you hit a certain age your body just starts to slowly tear apart at the seams.
Anyway, I bought my tickets in March when they went on sale and what had happened is that week I got paid double for some reason so when I saw that there was a “Meet and Greet VIP Option” I decided to be a sucker for once in my life and drop an extra $40 or so for what was guaranteed to be an all around awkward and bizarre experience. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t get what I paid for!
I was going to go to the concert with my friends Ian and Jordan, but they were not suckers and did not drop an extra $40 on the “Meet and Greet VIP Option” so I decided to bike to the concert while they took the train because the “Meet and Greet VIP Option” was to take place after the show and I didn’t want to ride the train home alone. I headed out at about 7pm and when I got to the venue there were about 30 people total. Apparently Big Boi does not pull a huge crowd in Boston. All the better as I got to waltz up to the second row and take my place next to another sucker who had also dropped an extra $40 on the “Meet and Greet Option.” He attempted to engage me in small talk but and he seemed like a nice enough guy but he kept talking to me about Janelle Monae and thought that Killer Mike was on one of the Big Boi solo albums so I wasn’t really about that life. Not that there’s anything wrong with Janelle Monae, in fact she’s great, but like don’t step to me only talking about Janelle Monae.
Once Jordan and Ian got there we hung out while until the first opening act, Real Talk, came on stage. Aside from being one of the most thoroughly entertaining rap opening act I have ever seen (most rap openers are pure trash) he was out and about handing out flyers with his name/info on them and he actually introduced himself from offstage. He almost acknowledged the fact that he introduced himself but then decided to try and play it cool.
After him was a moderately entertaining opener whose name I don’t remember exactly but it was some combination of the words South, Eagle, Renegade, and El Ray. It was probably all four in a counter intuitive order. He was aiight.
What happens next?! Is Killer Mike as big as he seems on the internet?! Does Slam actually get to meet Big Boi?! All this and more in the next episode of "An Evening With Big Boi"