Juiceboxxx

Trudging through a rain coated, grim and student infested Nottingham city centre with my ever diligent photographer, Gary, The Chameleon proves to be one of the most elusive places I've ever attempted to find. Asking all and sundry on the street it takes us around fifteen minutes to even get the information that it's above a Clinton's Cards before being sent in every which direction, none of which correct. When we arrive we realise why this place isn't particularly notorious. A thirty-odd capacity venue (which looks like someone's front room) above a quaint little coffee shop (remarked upon by Juiceboxxx himself) isn't where I would have guessed to see a bass heavy explosion of the most enthusiastic rap music I've ever seen.

We enter the venue (very early), order some beers and scout out the area. One of the first things we're met with is a zombie like figure creeping towards me with a beanie pulled over his face. After a couple of minutes of rather frightened confusion he's unmasked as the politely eccentric Juiceboxxx, relaxing before he takes to the stage.



After a couple of hours waiting around drinking the house cider, sharing a cup of tea with Juiceboxxx (getting his opinions on music, touring on his lonesome, hometown of Milwaukee and Obama's recently imposed tenure) and writing bad poetry in my notebook, the extremely underground Chameleon club is full-on attacked by an energy burning set from this charming young American.

Stating with his tongue firmly in his cheek that this concert is "The peak of our lives right now, people" I instantly like this guy. He's funny, intelligent and absolutely loves what he does. He introduces his first 'song' to get us all riled up, lays on the floor and what pumps out of the sound system but Bruce Springsteen. I became rather perplexed as the song played out and he remained on the floor, bouncing up with his back turned (somehow still getting across an electric stage presence) occasionally singing along down the mic with the odd digital delay effect.

This is far and wide the oddest, most intriguing and quite possibly the coolest introduction to a gig I've ever seen (excluding seeing a re-animated Richard Burton talk to me before a Jeff Wayne concert).



Although the sound system was perhaps a little too much on the bass side, Juiceboxxx launches straight into his first original rap of the evening. It's solid and well constructed (considering his almost 100% D.I.Y attitude) and watching this fellow move around like a sugar-rush spider monkey is exhilarating. He swings from things, he jumps on things, and he gets right up in people's faces and physically forces the crowd to clap along. Not that I mean to make it sound that the crowd wasn't into it, as the opposite is massive here, they love this guy, myself included. To emphasise Juiceboxxx's infectious demeanour I had the intense joy of meeting up with a Nottingham based friend of mine I haven't seen in too long whose music taste has no room, respect or love for this kind of music. He loved it.

He makes a great use of the digital delay effect throughout the night over his Beastie Boys-esque backing tracks (although he said after the show he's more influenced by Lil' Wayne of all people). Each tune has its own distinct identity with Juice's solid rapping and stage antics tying them all together. While admittedly the tunes left something to be desired he really is just at the start of his career and what I saw here showed an enormous potential, and the way he moves about during his performance is quite mind-blowing and somewhat unrivalled, at least by everything I've come into contact with so far. If you have the chance to see Juiceboxxx (which could be difficult as he's jetting off to Germany and Moscow in the near future) you will undoubtedly have a great time with this witty and hilarious yank.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.