Recap P.O.S. at High Noon Saloon

When Minneapolis rapper and multi-instrumentalist P.O.S. isn’t spitting his rhymes over a sea of waving arms, he's screaming and ripping out jagged guitar riffs in a hardcore outfit called Building Better Bombs. The young rapper and his friends in the Doomtree hip-hop collective made those two sides collide Monday night at the High Noon. Strapping on his guitar to open with a pummeling rendition of “The Brave And The Snake,” P.O.S. spat his airtight rhymes over hissing chords as the front of the surprisingly large audience mouthed along to the verses. “This is definitely the most people that have ever come to a show of mine in this city,” said the pleasantly surprised rapper as he worked his way into the shouted grooves of “Yeah Right (Science Science).” Between songs, when P.O.S. wasn’t challenging audience members to thumb wars, he would emphasize social equality, and often admonished the audience to take control of their lives, shouting things like, “Do what you love, even if it pays less!”

The set pulled largely from P.O.S.’ latest record, Never Better, and a bit from 2006’s Audition. His Doomtree crewmates (and show openers) Lazerbeak, Mike Mictlan, and Sims stormed the stage for a few frenzied renditions of tunes from the Minneapolis crew’s collaborative records, including “Hot Monotony,” and the playfully energetic “Accident,” which saw P.O.S. and Mictlan jumping into the audience. Sims, who performed an impressive set of self-conscious hip-hop earlier on, served as P.O.S.’ obscured hype man, spending most of the set hidden away on a back corner of the stage with a microphone.

From the abrasive blast of “Drumroll” to the off-kilter poetry of “Never Better,” the crowd was at attention for shout-alongs and call-and-response rap-alongs. The set climaxed with the final song, “Stand Up (Let’s Get Murdered),” a blasting, Lazerbeak-produced jam loaded with brassy soul samples. “I want to see everybody dancing like a complete idiot—nobody here is too cool,” P.O.S. shouted as the audience members around him went completely batshit, jumping up and down and screaming along to the show’s finale.