WHY?, Serengeti and Doseone @ Union Transfer.

September 17, 2012

by gwmiller3

Text and images by Brian Wilensky.

WHY? plays pop music. No, WHY? is hip-hop. But they also get labeled as indie rock because of Yoni Wolf’s heart-wrenching lyrics.

Unfortunately, I missed most of their set Friday night at Union Transfer because Sophia, the girl selling their records and other merch held my attention a little too much. She was a real sweetheart. But I did catch “Sod in the Seed,” from this summer’s buzz-worthy EP of the same name early in their set. Their double-drummer action on that one is worth the buzz in itself.

As for the rest the show, it was out of order. Serengeti coming on before Doseone had to be a mistake.

Serengeti’s laptop-hop was tight. From his raps about MMA fighting to “California” off of Family & Friends, he killed it. After his set, he did the hang-at-his-own-merch-table gig and when my friend bought a t-shirt, Serengeti simply threw in a CD with it and put the cash directly in his wallet.

Then Doseone came on. And before he started pushing buttons on some synth or drum/loop machine that said, “check you asschildren” on it, he asked the crowd how many people had their chest shat on by their mother.

Then I heard a cricket.

And Doseone just said, “Yeah, you don’t talk about that.”

Maybe I’m square, but it wasn’t my type of humor. Nor was his music.