Asher Roth Loves College (and Spadina)

May 25th, 2009

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Asher performs on MOD last week.

Thursday night at the El Mocambo was packed with 20-something year old white guys, just like me, all of us Asher Roth fans ready to see him and his buddies Brain Bangley and DJ Wreckineyez perform. I’d seen Asher Roth and the guys perform on MOD earlier to an audience mainly consisting of younger female fans so it was surprising but good to see he’s got a broader audience appeal. The crowd chanted “ASHER ASHER ASHER” and when he appeared on stage and started with his first track “Lark On My Go-kart” an instant cloud of mysterious smoke appeared above our heads in homage to what Asher represents.

Asher and Brain (real name Brian) put on an imaginary CD of cruising songs including some Dr Dre and Cyndi Lauper, as they steer their imaginary car around the stage, leading into “Blunt Cruisin’” and then “La Di Da”, with an imaginary spliff being handed to someone in the audience midway through.

If Asher really is high when he’s performing, he’s smoking something that doesnt deplete his energy as he bounced around the stage, sweating in the heat, smiling and laughing and having a good time with his buddies. We even had a boy band style interlude where the guys did a co-ordinated dance routine, lined up at the front of the stage together. DJ Wreckineyez does white boy dancing really well, pulls off geek-style black rimmed bottle glass glasses to great effect, and is the “nicest” when drunk – so he makes it to the top of my list of potential bromances.

This is the first time Asher Roth has come to Canada and I wanted to see what the hype was about. I love the album Asleep In The Bread Aisle and some of my friends have become huge fans especially after seeing his BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge cover of the Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow”. (Brain singing the line “Them chickens jacking my style” is my favourite part) But is this kid a one hit wonder with his anthem “I Love College” no doubt being adopted by every college in North America for years to come as a staple on the frat house party playlist? A lot of top producers and other artists seem to think he’s the real deal – he colloborates with artists like Cee-Lo and Busta Rhymes on his album which lends credibility should he need it.

Except he doesn’t need help with credibility. Asher Roth might sing about partying and girls, but there’s more to it than that. Watch him live and you can feel his ever increasingly refined talent as well as his joy in performing to a crowd, as if you were all his friends at his house party and you’d asked him to get on stage for you. Asher broke into a poetry slam style rap without music about the issue of weight, food and the fact that we don’t know that what we’re eating is often killing us. “Double chin flapping, under arm skin wiggling…. Everything causes cancer…. Nothing is possible without good health” is his message and it resonates without feeling like he’s preaching an issue simply because he needs to give substance to his act. Truth is, I came away with a feeling that this is the type of guy everyone wants to be friends with. A genuinely cool guy who is always creating fun at a party, but who isn’t defined by keg stands and ruling at beer pong (the latter which he did on MOD, btw, forcing some poor audience member to chug prune juice. I wouldn’t want to be that guy 1 hour later stuck riding the subway home.) There’s more to him than frat boy.

“Hey hey hey smoke weed every day” is his mantra, but he’s no pot head to be easily dismissed from class. I get the feeling that even though he sings “I love College”, Asher is participating in his own graduation ceremony when he’s on stage. The encore finishes with him shouting “Maybe we got some unfinished business” but in reality, the business of life post college for Asher Roth is just about to start and I’m excited to see where he and the guys go next. Wherever it is, I’ll be there with my red plastic cup.

Follow the guys on Twitter here:
Asher
Boyder
Brain
DJ Wreckineyez

Tags: asher roth, concert reviews