Guava never tasted so good – “Return of the G”

3-Day Super Guava Status!

This past weekend I had the epic honor of witnessing the reunion of Outkast at the Big Guava Music Festival in Tampa, Florida. After far too many years of being on hiatus, the Mighty “O” is touring during 2014 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut “Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik”. There had been speculation throughout 2013 that they’d reunite for something, but they’d never say for what. November 19, 2013, it had been reported by sources to Billboard that they’d reunite for the 2014 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, but nothing had been confirmed by the artists, their record label, nor by the festival representives. January 13, 2014, Andre and Big Boi officially confirmed that they would join together on stage for the famed festival. I got to see Big Boi in concert last year, and it was sooo live! This though, was the first time that I remember of Outkast being together in my city.

The Mighty Outkast

Big Guava was held at the Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union Amphitheater (or whatever it’s called now), at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Outkast went on at 9pm, so we headed there around 8pm since we live nearby. If I had left earlier like I had planned, I might’ve been lucky enough to get a t-shirt. After braving the rainy weather and dealing with minor parking confusion, we stepped in around 8:30 – we had missed the buffet in the VIP lounge and didn’t feel like sampling drinks just yet. However, we were just in time to be greeted by a familiar face. Along with her sister Kim, my homegirl from work Stefanie (Steffers) called out to me. They were there with more friends from work, Tara (T-Baby), Collette (CoCo), and Lauren (L-Boogie). We all had great seats, sitting right across from each other. Weirdly enough, that happened at the Kings of the Mic concert too. As we sat there chatting with other fans in our row, you could feel the anticipation growing. 9pm, the lights were dimmed and the crowd HOLLERED!! I joined my row-mates and went to the pit to get closer to the stage. Over the loudspeaker, we heard Big Boi call out “hootie hooooo!!”, and it was pandemonium. The revival was here…in Tampa…20 years later, we were still heeding ‘the call of the wild’! It was very surreal, like a seeing a rare creature or performing some breathtaking act. I know what I’m writing will never do them any justice, but Outkast was, is, and shall always be the truth. After all of the rumors, speculations, the doubters, and haters, it was finally real!

Sir Luscious Left Foot and Possum Aloysius Jenkins III

Like some in the audience had guessed (probably from watching the Coachella video), they lit into the fiery “B.O.B.” and “Gasoline Dreams” with Big stalking the stage and 3000 doing freaky dances. They followed it with “ATLiens”, “Skew it on the Bar-B”, and “The Art of Storytellin’Pt. 1”. When they performed “Spottieottiedopaliscious”, they brought out none other than Patrick “Sleepy” Brown; one-third of Organized Noize Productions and the singer featured on many Dungeon Family songs. Midway into their set, Andre stepped off stage while Daddy Fat Sax performing some solo cuts from Speakerboxxx, including “Ghetto Musick” and “I Like the Way You Move”; bringing Sleepy out again for the latter. Later, Dre came back out to perform solo cuts “Prototype”, “She Lives in My Lap”, and “Hey Ya!” from The Love Below album. But the best was still yet to come. Rejoined by Big Boi and Sleepy Brown, the trio delved into a medley of songs from the bonafied deep-fried classic album Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik, including the title track and “Hootie Hoo”. Even though I was blown away witnessing legends in action, it would’ve been nice if they had more special guests. It wasn’t until they performed “International Players’ Anthem” that I learned that Whild Peach (featuring Joi Gilliam and Keisha Jackson) was their backing vocal group and band. Joi is also the former wife of Dungeon Family brethren Big Gipp of Goodie Mob, and a respected soloist as well. Even still, having Bun B. perform with them would’ve been icing on an already very delicious cake. I expected or hoped that Killer Mike would’ve joined them when they performed “The Whole World”. When Outkast performed at Coachella, they featured Sleepy Brown, Janelle Monae, and Future. Killer Mike joined them in Atlanta for their CounterPoint performance but had to be in Dallas when ‘Kast performed at Big Guava. Even still…I wouldn’t have missed this for almost anything. To see them boys go through “Roses”, “Vibrate”, “So Fresh, So Clean” and “Elevators”…sigh, it was truly a blessing. Understanding that they have countless classics, an hour and a half was not enough for me but it’ll do until they do another tour. My voice probably would’ve been gone from the constant hollering and rapping if they had continued. I see that they’re going to be in Texas for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. I might have to book a flight soon, that’s all I’m sayin’.

Daddy Fat Sax, 3 Stacks, and Sleepy Brown.

Saturday, we arrived around 5pm to make sure we’d see Tegan and Sara at 6pm, and to get some free VIP food and drinks. We actually had enough time to swing by the merchandise stand, hoping to find some leftover Outkast gear; but no luck. This was the third time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing T&S live, but it never gets old. Before they came out, I again made my way to the pit in front of the stage. Since it wasn’t as crowded as the Outkast show, I was able to get closer to the stage. Of course, the audience erupted when they stepped out, and they immediately got into “Back In Your head” and “The Con”. After their banter about Sara’s mansion in Boca Raton and ice hockey, they got into “Now I’m All Messed Up”, “Walking With A Ghost”, “Call It Off”, Alligator”, “Closer”, and a few other T&S standards. Again, they were definitely one of the highlights of the festival. I didn’t get to see Haim, Blue October, or Vampire Weekend that night, but I damn sure saw Tegan and Sara…and that was enough for me.

Tegan and Sara

My Favorite Elves!

The weather for Sunday was much better than Friday and Saturday, so we were able to stroll the festival grounds. My wife had to work that night, so we were going to have to miss Grouplove and Foster the People. We got there around 1pm, in time to try some of the food trucks and check out Earl Sweatshirt at 2pm. For those that don’t know, he’s a member off the Odd Future collective out of California, which features Tyler the Creator, Taco, Jasper the Dolphin, Lionel, Mike G., Domo Genesis, Lucas, Syd tha Kid, Frank Ocean, Casey Veggies (formerly), Left Brain, Hodgy Beats, and a few others. If you’ve ever watched Loiter Squad on Adult Swim, you might’ve seen him. You might have heard about his abrupt disappearance a few years ago too, which caused a stir among hip-hop fans and media outlets. I’m not as familiar with Earl’s music as I am with Outkast or Tegan and Sara, but I have had the pleasure of checking out him and Odd Future in the past couple of years. Since we had Super Guava passes, we had access to seating that was close to the stage. This was good since by the time we stepped into the venue, the pit in front of the stage was crazy full already. We were actually close enough to clearly see him backstage, while Lucas played music to warm-up the crowd. When Earl finally took the stage, the angst-filled teens and 20-somethings in front of the stage erupted. From watching video performances of Odd Future, I knew that was not the area for me, but I definitely liked the show. He performed a few OF cuts, and songs from his solo albums, including “Sunday”, “Molasses”, “Whoa!” and “Orange Juice”. With assistance from Taco, Earl killed it. I didn’t know any of the lyrics but between his energy and the heavy bass lines, it didn’t even matter. Kill them all, young man…kill them all.

Earl Sweatshirt and Taco

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All!!

~ by Keith Robertson on May 5, 2014.