California Academy Of Sciences Kicked Off August’s Remix Sessions The Bay Way
LaRussell performing at NightLife. Photo by Jarrett Carlston.
NightLife has something special going on this month, and last week the Bay Area was in full effect at Golden Gate Park’s California Academy of Sciences. LaRussell made his homecoming after being on tour with T Pain and kicked off the Remix Sessions that have you covered every Thursday in August. If you don’t know who LaRussell is, you should. He is taking the Vallejo torch, spreading fire all over the Bay, and representing us well nationally.
Every corner of the Bay Area was in the building as folks shuffled to the outdoor stage area after taking selfies with Claude the albino crocodile and getting their science on. It was a true showcase of just how diverse the Bay Area is. As my friend Lisa put it as she looked around, “LaRussell is the type of dude that can bridge the gap between old heads and the new upcoming generation like my students.” He also, like many Vallejo legends, can bridge the gap between race, gender, and sexual orientation and speak to all looking to get loose for a few hours. Get loose we did.
Promptly at 8:15, the City and the Sunset’s own legendary lyricist Richie Cunning took to the stage to humorously send all the tall people “the fuck to the back” in a briefing of concert etiquette. If you live in San Francisco and don’t know who Richie Cunning is you also should, but this is about LaRussell and NightLife not my shameless plugs for Richie.
LaRussell performing at NightLife. Photo by Jarrett Carlston.
It took no time at all for LaRussell to connect with the crowd filling us in on his life on the road and how grateful he was to be back home in the Bay Area. “Look at this,” LaRussell quipped jokingly. “I didn’t know this many @#$%’s even liked science,” which drew laughs from the full crowd. Then the beats dropped and the party was on from there.
Almost right off the top LaRussell dropped his hit Give Me a Beat off his collaboration album Majorly Independent with Pinole’s P-Lo. The crowd was turf dancing, swaying, and in my case, throwing out my back happily. We were all there for two things: major vibes and a good time. LaRussell had the stage presence and comedy to provide both. He came complete with a crew that included a DJ, a man on the keys, and a camera operator and dancer who kept up the energy all evening. “I like this, I like this, it’s like performing in the backyard,” stated LaRussell while nodding his head.
Majorly Independent Album Cover
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t go way deep into LaRussell’s catalog but I was impressed to see a deeper side speaking on life and death and personal conflicts the artist has experienced, expressing this sometimes just over the keyboard melodies. There were real spoken word, poetic, heartfelt moments. This is all in between his many times jumping off stage and getting his swang on in the crowd.
The experience left myself and many around me feeling damn proud to be a native of the Bay Area, no matter what corner we came from. Also hell yeah science.
Richie Cunning does the booking for these events and has more tricks up his sleeve for the entire month of August with these remix sessions at NightLife. As Richie states “NightLife isn’t once a month, once every other month, it is every Thursday.” If you liked LaRussell be sure to check out my friend and yours Z-Man opening up for underground pioneer Murs on August 15th. You can find all NightLife lineups on the official website here.
Thanks again to the entire California Academy of Sciences staff for putting this on and to the San Francisco public library for the free books. Get those free books.
Howdy! My name is Katy Atchison and I'm an Associate Editor for Broke-Ass Stuart.
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