1-2-3! Mos Def and Talib Kweli

Last night marked only the fourth show in the history of the newly opened Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD, but the excitement level was high nevertheless. The night featured the Brooklyn hip-hop duo Black Star, comprised of MC's Mos Def and Talib Kweli. The two formed the group in 1997 and have since put out only one album, although a second full length album by the group appears to be on its way in 2012. Shortly after 9:30pm, Mos Def and Talib Kweli took the stage.  In front of a packed house, the duo began the show with a quick intro. They then went right into "Astronomy (8th light)", the first official song from their album "Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star". The group continued, in order, finishing with the track "Twice in a lifetime", performing the album in it's entirety. Black Star had the crowd singing, dancing, and having an overall great time. There have been some great groups in the genre, but it's safe to say that Black Star could be the best alliance in hip-hop whyyy ohhhhhhhh!


Vocals - 8/10
Stage presence - 9/10
Crowd response - 10/10
Overall - 9/10
Favorite song from set - Definition

Let me hear you UPROAR!

 The Uproar Festival is quickly becoming one of my favorite yearly festivals in only it's second year in existence. The tour features a full day of fist pumping, crowd surfing, mosh pitting ROCK! This years lineup again headlined California rock band Avenged Sevenfold, who with there incredibly big, but very cool new stage set delivered an incredible performance. A7X to the delight of many of their fans played a medley of songs from their earlier albums, songs that show the more "screaming" aspect of Avenged Sevenfold, which are usually much more limited than was seen and heard this go round.

The festival also included canadian rock band Three Days Grace, a band who's popularity made them a good candidate to headline this years festival. Three Days Grace puts on a show that makes it hard not to get up on your feet and just rock out for the entire performance. The set even featured a walk through the crowd by frontman Adam Gontier in which he stopped to tell a preoccupied fan to "get off the phone man! This is a rock show!"

One of the biggest surprises of the day was the festivals opening act and winners of the stops battle of the bands winner Sky Came Burning. The band from Baltimore, MD took on the responsibilities of warming up a rock ready crowd pumped up for a long day of music and events. Opening with their self titled song "Sky came burning", they rocked the crowd and from the start of song one had them hooked. Between the dueling vocals of frontmen Christopher Duval and David Strand, the very skilled guitarist Jeff Lane, the extra talented drumming of Randall James, and the heavy bass of Jeremy Cavey it is clear that Sky Came Burning has a very bright future ahead of them. The Band had one of the days largest crowds and was even approached by Sevendust Frontman Lajon Witherspoon, who asked the band for a  cd and t-shirt and issued an invite to "hang out".

For more photos from this show click HERE and look in the "music" section