GZA performing Liquids Swords @ Knitting Factory//12.13.07 

We were first introduced to the Liquid Swords concept when Pitchfork announced the lineup for their July festival.  The idea is straight forward and easy to like, GZA performing his classic 1995 record in its entirety.  The debut performance at the Pitchfork Festival received mixed reviews but that wouldn’t stop him from selling out two homecoming shows in the small Knitting Factory main room.  There was a lot to take away from this show to report, first and most importantly that GZA was on point and feeding off of the crowd’s energy.  Every verse came off strong and you could get a sense that he was enjoying the show himself. 

Joining GZA on stage was fellow fam member Killah Priest and Indie Culture album collaborator C-Rayz Walz.  GZA worked his way through Liquid Swords but not track by track and it became clear the setlist would be scattered after opening with ‘Gold’.  Embedded into the set was material from later releases and although you can’t go wrong with ‘Animal Planet’ and ‘Fam Members Only,’ I was hoping for him to go in the order of the album’s tracklisting.  In 2006 I was fortunate enough to attend the Reasonable Doubt 10 year anniversary and comeback show for Jay-Z which had a similar format.  What made it so great was that Jay-Z did two sets, the first being Reasonable Doubt straight through track by track and then a second set of his classic songs from later on which is what I was hoping GZA’s style would be

Somewhere midway through the set GZA took a breather to address the crowd on a few issues.  First, he mentioned his recent trip to London where he performed Swords and reportedly talked some trash on 50 Cent.  He set the record straight with his “youtube material,” explaining he never dissed 50 but said he “ain’t got lyrics” which got a loud reaction from the crowd in agreement.  50/Wu beef is nothing new however, dating back to 50’s first jabs at Wu-Tang on ‘How To Rob’. 

By the end of the performance GZA pretty much ran through all the classics, especially on a stand out perforamnce of ’Auto Bio’.  The show was enjoyable but missing a few important pieces to the puzzle such as ‘Investigative Reports’ which is the album’s 10th track and a handful of Wu-Tang members which helped make this album the classic it is.  Perhaps I was overly optimistic but I had hopes that a lot of the clansmen would come out to spit their verses seeing as that it was a

New York show.  It was a satisfying performance that I’m glad I saw but it left me realizing what we really need is a 36 Chambers show with the entire Clan.  Imagine that album straight through at one of the January Hammerstein Ballroom shows where the first half is that followed by material to promote 8 Diagrams.