Before hardrockchick.com was born, when my live music reviews were still integrated into my personal blog, I used to bitch about how these San Francisco hipsters thought they were too cool to stay for the main act. Well, I think I might have turned into one of them.

With the help of Noise Pop and Mr. Roboto Presents, I’ve become a more savvy concert goer with refined taste. My friends and I were turned on to The Gray Kid when he opened for Ghostland Observatory. His magnetic performance drew us in like kittens to milk; we just lapped it up. So, we were floored to see that he was making another stop in SF, even if he was opening for someone we weren’t so into.

It was my third show at The Independent in 3 weeks, and my mouth dropped when I walked in. Tables? Tables for The Gray Kid? You do not sit during a Gray Kid set. It’s like, impossible. And where was everyone? Hot Chip @ The Fillmore? That’s so last winter.

I start thinking about the Mezzanine show, and when he just hopped up on stage in front of a packed house and did his thing, and an awestruck silence settled over the crowd that only happens when witnessing the unfamiliar, unexpected impressive. Will the performance still have that energy without such an audience to feed off of?

Why, yes…that and then some. We were introduced to a new, not-yet-recorded track first, and then the rest of the set included favorites like ‘B Thru Z’, ‘Race World’, and, the most popular, ‘Lonely Love’. The standing audience, almost entirely female admirers, grooved pleasantly along as we watched The Gray Kid work his magic: transition from the deep hip hop lyrics to falsettos, tug at his clothes, and stomp his silver-shoed feet (which were, at one point, licked). It satisfied the fans and peaked the interest of the unaware. Hopefully these folks will go on to discover some of the other great things he does, such as people-food, blog, and write for mags.

An added bonus to this show was being introduced to Vin Sol, DJ extraordinaire. His very now and then mix of music is a breath of fresh air in the SF house dj/ultra mainstream usual.

And we stayed for a bit of Datarock. Nice jumpsuits and sunglasses. But I’ll keep my Norwegians of the Death Metal variety.