Few local shows tend to be as ambitious and varied as the upcoming ‘Collab.’ Presented by Keep Louisville Loud and DJ Shaheed of Trap House productions, the Collab is offering 10 local musical performances (five hip hop acts and five rock acts) side by side, alongside an intermittent performance by the Va Va Vixens burlesque troupe. With performances from The Tunesmiths, Powell, Karass, Dead Room Cult, Freddie Was a Boxer, Touch Armor Class, The Analogous Enterprise, Blaklyt, Major Threat, and Shadowpact, the Collab is seeking to satisfy your appetite in a big way.
“We're wanting to show the community that there is an enormous variety of performing artists that Louisville has to offer,” says Jared Wright of Keep Louisville Loud. “The motivation was one shared between Shaheed and myself. Shaheed does a lot for the community predominantly through hip hop and his monthly Shadowlands event at Magbar, not to mention a series of short documentaries that are currently in the works [and] we both have history in hardcore and rock but have transitioned, in some fashion, to working with the hip hop community.”
The Collab is laid out to show off alternating acts – one rock performance followed by a hip hop performance for half-hour sets. After five acts, the Louisville’s own Va Va Vixens will perform. “We have great respect for the astounding variety they are able to bring to the stage,” says Wright. “We felt incorporating them would give a nice break in a long day of live music.
At first glance, the variety and scope of the scheduled performances appear to be unrelated, but these local artists have been working together well before the Collab. “Most of the bands involved with this event have previously been involved with hip hop before through collaborations and/or performances,” says Wright. “Tunesmith's with 1200, Karass has recorded tracks featuring Touch AC, Powell have jammed for live cyphers with multiple members of Analogous Enterprise (most notably Dom B), and the drummer for Freddie Was a Boxer fills in for The Smoke Shop Kids while Dr. Dundiff is out of town as well as promotes his own hip hop project…we felt it was important to involve groups that have previous experience in both scenes.”
Thankfully, the Collab is not seeking to be a one-and-done event. With enough support, this could be a local Louisville staple. “Ultimately our end game with The Collab is to create an annual event that brings two thriving scenes together,” says Wright. “We're hoping we might inspire more collaborations/crossovers between these two incredibly talented genres in this city. Tell a friend, buy the pre-sales, come out to the show.”
The Collab will take place on March 26 at 6 p.m. at the Tim Faulkner Gallery. You can preorder tickets here. For more information on the Collab, check here or here. To those who are craving more or can’t make it out to the Collab, make sure you check out Poorcastle and LouisEvolve. You can keep up with Keep Louisville Loud through their website or their Facebook.
“It's about getting music in front of people that may otherwise never see or hear it," says Wright. "It's all about building community and connecting different scenes.”
