I got in after the opening act but before APSCI took the stage. I stumbled my way through a rude beer line and found a comfortable place to stand. In 15 minutes, I saw someone wearing a Kanye t-shirt and someone in a Titleist hat. Yep, UVa was back in session.

I also saw plenty of clothing I’d make fun of if only I knew what any of it was called.

APSCI was atrocious, partly because of their performance, but primarily because the sound was a disaster. I was nervous — I didn’t squeeze into the club for squelchy mikes and unintelligible mud. I shouldn’t have worried. I don’t know if the rumor was true that Blackalicious had brought their own soundmen, but, for the most part they sounded good.

The crowd reacted immediately to the opening of “Paragraph President” and stayed up the whole evening. The crowd also seemed to love the tracks off the upcoming release The Craft, especially “Rhythm Sticks” and “Supreme People.” The new tracks sounded tight, probably because the group (Gab and Xcel with two singers and a keyboard player) has been on the road for three weeks.

At one point Gab stopped the show to ask for a moment of silence for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. For the most part the audience acquiesced (although the rude beer line shovers, one of whom I say pretending to be drunk before he had drunk his first, didn’t fully comply). Gab when back to work after that, although he might have needed the break. He never sounded tired, but he stood stock-still for nearly the whole show.

After that, Xcel and the keyboard player gave us a fine duet (which had the unfortunate and unintended effect of showing how far APSCI’s DJ has to go). Shortly after that we got a singalong on the “Alphabet Song” (not “Alphabet Aerobics, just that one that goes A-B-C-D-E-F-G — you know it). The show continued on with pretty high energy, and even a fair amount of hippie dancing (this is jam-band country, after all).

When they left the stage, all I was thinking was that the older I get, the longer it seems to take between the main set and the encore. During this interlude, Xcel came back first to make the 427th reference to The Craft (you’re touring weeks before it streets — you’re not gonna sell many this way), and took his salesmanship one step to far.

Xcel said something to the effect of: “Buy our CD. Don’t download it. If you don’t buy our CDs, then we can’t come out here and provide you with these shows.” I’m 100% in favor of buying music from artists you like, but I don’t want to hear an audience lied to in order to sell records. CD purchases don’t support an act’s ability to tour; if anything, tour profits are where the money’s at. Contrary to what Xcel said, Blackalicious wasn’t visiting Cville out of the kindness of their heart, spending their final nickels so we could enjoy ourselves. They were there to make some money (and to have fun performing). Performance and fanbase-building sell records, not wares-hawking worthy of a nervous, unsigned folkie.

So it left a sour taste in my mouth at the end of a fun concert. Fortunately Gab dropped an amazing freestyle (the second, and better, of the night) and then sincerely thanked us. Eh, good enough.