Kelly Trom
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Hip-hop beats drifted through Santa Rosa Park mixed with the horn of a distant train, the din of skateboard wheels hitting concrete and the final buzzer from a roller hockey game.
The third annual Rock ‘N’ Flow music festival was a meeting of the sounds as well as different music genres. Organizer and local emcee James Kaye came onstage to get the event started, decked out in a black T-shirt bearing the words “hip-hop, funk, rock, jazz and reggae.” Those genres could be found mixed together on the two Rock ‘N’ Flow stages.
The event’s organizers wanted the fusion of genres to be more recognized in San Luis Obispo. Wesley Price, bassist for Wordsauce, performs in a band that takes that combination — live bands alongside hip-hop emcees — to heart.
“San Luis Obispo is a beautiful place, but it has been doing the white boy reggae scene forever,” Price said. “As cool as that is, we needed a change of pace in this town.”
That change of pace comes by mixing popular genres.
“It’s like live band hip-hop,” Price said. “It’s taking analog instruments and mixing it with hip-hop. It’s really a beautiful thing.”
Wordsauce describes its music as a jazzy, hip-hop punk fusion. Members have been in jazz bands, punk rock bands, heavy metal bands and funk bands.
Wordsauce performed along with 10 other artists from Los Angeles, Ventura and San Luis Obispo throughout the day, leading up to headliners Mistah F.A.B. and Step Brothers.
The location of San Luis Obispo draws many artists to the area, including the Rock ‘N’ Flow performers.
“We are situated perfectly between San Francisco and Los Angeles,” Price said. “You got all these artistic people together and it created such a great scene. Our town is tiny, so for the music scene to be what it is here is insane.”
In fact, many of the bands that came to Rock ‘N’ Flow have played shows together before at venues such as SLO Brewing Co., as well as other festivals.
Rock ‘N’ Flow 2014 was filled with 25-minute sets. While attendees explored the vendor booths, drank in the beer garden and received haircuts at the Kut To Be the Best booth, live artists spray painted on pre-set banners.
As the sun began to set, the performances got louder and more energetic.
Luck&Lana came on the main stage at approximately 5:30 p.m. The duo was at the inaugural Rock ‘N’ Flow festival. Luck&Lana heard about the festival from an artist they were recording with, who was friends with Kaye. The two decided to take a chance on the event.
“The first one was super small, very low key,” said Lana Shea, who makes up half the duo. “The first one was actually rained out and then they rescheduled it on a day with a solar eclipse. They were running off of a solar power generator.”
During Luck&Lana’s third song in that performance, the power went out. This year, there were no major malfunctions during the duo’s performance except that the balloons they emptied into the crowd blew the opposite way.
“It is a very organic festival,” said Luckiam, the emcee who completes the duo. “Hip-hop with live bands just makes sense. This movement has been done with larger-scale festivals but it is great to see it at this level, too.”
The duo performed songs from its new album, Kill the Computer, while its DJ was in the back of the stage in a unicorn head.
Headliners Alchemist and Evidence — together known as Step Brothers — took the stage after Luck&Lana because of a switch in lineup, as Mistah F.A.B. was stuck in traffic at the time.
Step Brothers performed songs off its debut album as a duo, Lord Steppington, as well as songs both Evidence and Alchemist produced as solo artists. At the end, Alchemist took the reins behind the DJ booth while Evidence rapped.
Kaye came onstage after the duo’s performance to give the audience some bad news: The police wanted to shut the festival down early because of noise complaints in the area.
“Hip-hop is a powerful thing, and some people can’t handle it,” Kaye said.
Mistah F.A.B. finally took the microphone and started to perform, telling the audience he could get a few songs in before the police made it to the stage. Almost as soon as he made that announcement, the power was cut and the microphone went dead.
Improvising, Mistah F.A.B. hushed the crowd and started free styling without the speakers. He made shout outs to the Central Valley, the Los Angeles area and, of course, the Bay Area, where he grew up. He pointed to the speakers as he rapped out the last line.
“They cut this shit off, but still this is hip-hop,” he said. “To my people I couldn’t leave you stranded, peace, though.”