Recap and photos: Doomtree at the High Noon Saloon
Joe Engle
From left to right: Mike Mictlan, Paper Tiger, Sims, Lazerbeak, P.O.S., Cecil Otter, and Dessa.
Mighty Minneapolis’ hip-hop collective Doomtree rooted itself into the High Noon Saloon on Sunday to kick out the final date of its massive tour, but before the septet’s five MCs stormed the stage, Doomtree producers Paper Tiger and Lazerbeak kicked off the evening with a joint set of instrumental tunes from Paper Tiger’s Made Like Us and a few self-described “twee-pop” tunes from Lazerbeak’s freshly released Legend Recognize Legend. The instrumentals from Made Like Us were virtually collaged together live by Paper Tiger and Lazerbeak as they poked at their respective MPC samplers with expert timing, while Lazerbeak’s guitar-driven pop tunes pushed him a bit closer to his role in The Plastic Constellations as Paper Tiger held down the backbeat via MPC. “Don’t worry, we’ll get to the rap shit in a little bit,” Lazerbeak assured the anxious crowd.
Doomtree indeed got “to the rap shit.” As soon as Sims, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, Dessa, and P.O.S. finally stormed the stage, it was a tornado-spun carousel of 35 full-crew jams and cuts from the MCs’ respective solo records. The opening blast of “Drumsticks” sent a sea of waggling arms flying through the air. “Ghostwriter for hire / Tie up the wires / I am the fire supplier of inspired rap / Burn the empire back / It’s Doomtree live through the wiretap,” spat Sims with crystal clarity.
The most powerful statement Doomtree made was the way its respective branches complement and support each other. When the crew wasn’t ripping through cuts from 2007’s False Hopes or 2008’s Doomtree, the rappers were taking turns performing little micro-sets of solo material. When Dessa effortlessly and immaculately crooned and rhymed her way through “Dixon’s Girl” from 2010’s excellent A Badly Broken Code, P.O.S., Mictlan, and Sims served as backup singers. Even when Mictlan wasn’t singing, he was mouthing along with the words. Or, when Mictlan performed “Hand Over Fist” from his album with Lazerbeak of the same title, Dessa and Sims could be seen rapping along to themselves in the background. This truly outs Doomtree as a collective that defies egotistical hip-hop crew protocol (like the in-fighting in Wu-Tang Clan), sets its own egos aside, and truly supports itself from within.
While Cecil Otter (in his finest golfing cap) may be one of the slower members of Doomtree to pump out new material, the audience was more than happy to feast on the poetic flow of “A Rickety Bridge” from Doomtree’s 2009 mix False Hopes 15, as a few folks in our vicinity rapped along with vigorous intensity. On the other end, Sims treated the audience to a few punchy new jams from his upcoming Bad Time Zoo collaboration with Lazerbeak that’s slated for a February release. Sims’ pounding delivery seemed to cut through much harder and more precisely than when we last saw him with P.O.S. in February of 2009. While no one shook the audience quite like P.O.S. with his brain-rattling renditions of “Drumroll” and “Purexed,” this show was a monument to just how far his Doomtree peers have upped their game along with him. P.O.S. may seem like a leader, but the group’s collaborative, head-nodding finale of “Low Light Low Life” from P.O.S.’ 2009 album Never Better proved that it’s goddamned hard now to pick a favorite.
