TRACK LISTING     VIDEOS     BIOGRAPHY     DISCOGRAPHY     NEWS l TOUR DATES     FORUMS     GALLERY     MEDIA l PRESS KIT   More than just loose change and lint Concert Review: Pocket Dwellers @ Clark Queens University - The Journal By Cameron Tulk, Opinions Editor First, I have to admit that I had never been to a Pocket Dwellers show before, and I can't really remember the last time I was at Clark Hall for a live show, so I didn't know quite what to expect last Wednesday night when the Pocket Dwellers came to Queen's. However, the band's reputation as an amazing live act precedes it, so I was looking forward to a good show. The story of the Pocket Dwellers goes something like this: seven musicians from a variety of backgrounds-classical, jazz, the mean streets of the GTA-came together to make music that defies genre classification. The band includes an MC, a DJ, two sax players, a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. Their music is part hip-hop, part funk, part jazz, part soul, and part rock-what the band describes as the sound of today's streets. The band prides itself on being anything but conventional. The band has managed to gain a small but loyal audience, if the soldout crowd at Clark was any indication. But as the band said, it's not the size of the crowd that matters. "We don't have a problem playing for five people. If we're enjoying it, it doesn't matter how big it is." The night began with Blues Underdog, a seven-piece band from Pickering that played a blend of hip-hop, funk and alternative rock. Featuring four vocalists changing up with the bassist for different songs, the band put on a good show in their own right. Their rhythm-heavy set exuded energy that couldn't be contained by the stage. When the crowd initially hung back, the MC came to them, using half the bar for the performance. By the end of the set, which included a fine cover of Sublime's "What I Got," everybody in the place was grooving along with the band. At 11 p.m., the Pocket Dwellers took the stage. MC Nigel Williams greeted the capacity crowd with "good evening brothers and sisters" before launching into the first track. From the first note, the crowd was into the music. Just about everybody in Clark was dancing by the third song, as Williams told the crowd, "You better dance with us, you better move with us." He didn 't have to ask; the music was so good nobody in the place was sitting down. Every song received a good response from the crowd, but particularly good was "Lifecheck," the title track from their new album and "B-boys," which the band ended the night with. Just as good as the songs was the jamming in between. At one point, Williams left the stage completely, allowing for a drum solo followed by a turntable solo, followed by a sax solo, each one receiving mass approval from the crowd. The band lived up to its reputation as a stellar live act, moving seamlessly between songs and jams. One student summed up the night as "an explosion of talented hip-hop and jazz that can't be expressed in any other way than funkalicious."