It’s supposed to be the middle of summer on the East Coast, but if you were at New Jersey’s Liberty State Park on the opening day of All Points West, you’d swear you were on a monsoon-stricken tropical island.
Being at a People Under the Stairs show is kinda like being back in 1999, or wait, is it more like 1989? The fact is, the group’s organic loop-based hip-hop style has gone in and out favor over the past two decades (think The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest and Jurassic 5), but judging by the blissful grins and pumping fists of the mostly 18-24-year-old crowd on Friday afternoon at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio CA, right now it’s certainly enjoying another resurgence. PUTS played at 3pm to a full and verging-on-rabid tent of fans, their eyes transfixed and mouths rapping the lyrics right along with Thes One and Double K, the group’s two MCs. PUTS’ set consisted of a medley of old songs as well as new releases from their current album, Fun DMC. The crowd’s enthusiasm never waned; in fact it might have even increased when the duo performed songs from The Next Step, released in 1998 and Question in the Form of an Answer, 2000.