James Scott Verified

As we all know, Thanksgiving brings about memories of times past and present...things we are thankful for and people we love. So, what better way to cap off this special weekend than a Vanilla Ice concert. Right? Some friends and I thought the same way, so we made the trip to FireWater to run down memory lane with 'Nilla (that's what his close peeps call him - maybe?).

Anyway, this was our first trip to FireWater, so this is somewhat a review on the venue. They describe themselves on their website as "breathing new life to Dallas away from the dives of Deep Ellum". I guess having a little guy in the restroom to help you with soap, water, and paper towels for tips constitutes "not a dive". Or maybe a cozy fireplace? I'm not sure what value those things have in a music venue, but to each his own. In any event, the place was clean and the sound was pretty good (when the power wasn't going in and out for one band).

But, back to the matter at hand - Vanilla. He played what I guess now is his 'usual' music, which seems like a fusion of his hip-hop rap sound and metal (I'm not an avid listener of either genre, so please forgive my ignorance). For the most part, he sounded exactly as you would expect. Lyrics about smoking and sex and getting in trouble with the law, etc. The big thing we noticed is that his voice now sounds like some sort of mutation between Adam Sandler's cajun-guy and Cookie-monster...even his speaking voice sounded this way...very odd. Not sure if this is his "new sound", or if the years of whatever he's been doing has actually altered his vocal chords.

In the end, it didn't really matter how good anything sounded. He performed a familiar version of "Ice Ice Baby", in addition to another beauty from his classic vault - "Ninja Rap", which was a pleasant surprise. We were thoroughly entertained, and it was well worth the price of admission - which gave us one more thing to be thankful for this weekend.

1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )