This past Tuesday, fresh off of backing up crooner Frank Ocean at the biggest festival of the year (last weekend), the Canadian jazz trio, BadBadNotGood, played their first show in Los Angeles at The Mint, a legendary venue for musicians and music lovers. The band played two killer sets with a 45 minute interlude. An intimate audience of about a hundred anxiously waited for BBNG to take the stage.

Also in attendance were a few members of the Odd Future clan who are loosely affiliated with the trio of experimental jazz/hip-hop wunderkinds. Most notably, Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Syd The Kid and Matt Martian were spectators. After the show, we caught up with BBNG, Earl Sweatshirt, a couple of Thebe’s buddies and took some photographs around the venue (It got pretty ratchet when Earl whipped out a shiv. Ha! Check out the gallery).

The band opened up with a raucous cover of Waka Flocka’s Hard in the Paint; they then proceeded to the track Vices, a new song from their recent full-length project, BBNG02. Throughout the night, the band managed to successfully oscillate the tempo from fast to slow; the crew is adept at shifting back and forth with ease. Whether it was intentional or not, it provided for an enthralling effect as the crowd would shift from a stance of hipsters head-bopping from one track and then absolutely raging like utter fools on the next sonic morsel.

A memorable and zenith performance was an eight minute-long rendition of James Blake’s Limit to Your Love and a surprise cover of King Geedorah’s Fazers (a personal favorite). At the end of the night, BadBadNotGood closed the second set with an insane and grandiose cover of Gucci Mane’s Lemonade. BBNG’s evening provided for a welcome audio tableau we were fortunate to soak in.

These kids are on the verge of something truly unique and it seems as if they’re just getting started. We look forward to hearing more material from these creative and talented virtuoso musicians. If you missed our previous post on BBNG, You can download their new album HERE.

–@ybaynes

Photography courtesy of Taiyo Watanabe (Flickr)

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