Recap P.O.S. and Dessa at High Noon Saloon

No one was more surprised that Stefon Alexander—better known as P.O.S.—had sold out the High Noon Saloon on Friday than the rapper himself. The look of amazement on the Minnesota rapper’s face as his audience shouted along with the opening verse of “De La Souls” was one that glowed with humility, despite his intense stage presence. Also, no one seemed happier for the Minneapolis emcee than his three friends who kicked off the show: F. Stokes, Astronautalis, and fellow Doomtree artist Dessa.

Stokes—who had been following the tour via Amtrak and bus for several days—went as far as to show his gratitude with a reworked version of Kanye West’s “Big Brother,” dedicating the lyrics to P.O.S. instead of Jay-Z. While the notion admittedly seemed really cheesy at first, it was somehow more convincing coming from a heartfelt rapper like Stokes (who currently splits his time between San Francisco and Madison).

After Stokes and DJ Vinnie Toma punched through a set of songs from Stokes’ 2009 album Death Of A Handsome Bride (a collaborative effort with Doomtree producer Lazerbeak) and F.I.L.M. (a remix album featuring Madison’s Dirty Disco Kidz), Astronautalis took the stage and confused audience members with his glass-gargling., Tom Waits-infused hip-hop. Astronautalis wrapped up his gruff performance, Dessa took the stage and further cemented her status as a tour de force in Midwestern hip-hop.

“What’s up, my name is Dessa. I represent a crew called Doomtree from Minneapolis,” Dessa declared to wild applause. By kicking off her soulful set with the mellow arrangement of “Kites” from 2005’s False Hopes EP, she put pressure on the audience to cease its chatter and pay attention to her hushed crooning. Cameras flashed as Dessa broke into full swing with the punchy backdrop of “Dutch,” pulling the mic off its stand and shimmying across the stage in front of the crowd’s waving arms and flashing camera-phones. Throughout her performance, Dessa had to deal with a nasty sinus infection. “Ultimate hip-hop right here,” she yelled, while waving an inhaler at the crowd.

Despite the sickliness, her set—which centered on her brilliant new album A Badly Broken Code—crawled into every corner of her rich dynamics. From the soulful crooning of “Matches To Paper Dolls,” to the visceral couplets of “551,” all the way to her stunning a cappella rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (which she merged with powerful slam poetics), Dessa mesmerized the crowd and set a towering standard for P.O.S. to follow. And follow he did.

Opening with explosive build of “Let It Rattle,” Alexander left his guitar at home this time around, shifting all focus toward emceeing and letting Plain Ole Bill (who also handled DJ duties for Dessa) deal with scratching records and launching songs. P.O.S. blasted through several numbers from 2009’s groundbreaking Never Better and 2006’s Audition, even taking time out in the middle of his set to offer free merch to any fan who could beat him in thumb-wrestling. Alexander took on three challengers and actually lost to the first one. Not a bad way to score free records. The finest point of the show was arguably when P.O.S. brought Dessa to the stage and joined forces with her for a couple of awesome jams, including the infectious sampling and chorus hook of “Low Light Low Life”: “Uh-huh, uh-huh / Heads will roll / Low light low life / Recite that untold,” Alexander spat as Dessa backed him up. Also, Astronautalis was called up for a performance of “Hand Made Hand Gun,” a hidden track from Never Better. After the tune, P.O.S. revealed that he and Astronautalis are currently working on an album that he describes as “hip-hop mixed with Fugazi and old Modest Mouse.”

Up until the very end, the audience went totally batshit, rapping along to every song, filling in the blanks of every call for response, and spastically waving arms with approval. Before closing his set with the mighty “Purexed,” P.O.S. warned the audience that there would be no encore. Afterward, P.O.S. lead the crowd in a giant chorus of “ta-da!”

“That’s the most beautiful way you could ever end a show, thank you.” The rapper then jumped into the audience and gave out free hugs.