Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
WHAT!? There’s no way that legendary O.G. Original Gangster rapper Ice-T (and heavy metal singer… and movie star…. and longtime Law and Order: SVU television actor) would be performing at the 470-capacity Great American Music Hall?! Is this for real? Ticket purchased immediately! Yes indeed, on Friday June 27, the I the C the E the T himself rolled into “Frisco” (his words) with his O.G. DJ Evil E and performed a ninety-minute set including shout-outs, NSFW jokes, and he even showed off a few of his special Bay Area friends.
Eight months ago, Ice-T appeared at Aftershock Festival in Sacramento with his heavy metal band Body Count and laid waste to the place. These are the words that Spinning Platters wrote about the devastation:
“Although it is astonishing to see both Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in the same evening, their shows are very well produced and don’t really change from one night to the next. On the other hand, Ice-T and Body Count was Merciless, raw and unpredictable, and was easily the set of the day and perhaps the entire weekend. After kicking things off with his cover of Slayer’s Raining Blood, Ice held absolutely nothing back, from the first verse of There Goes the Neighborhood, to Manslaughter, Psychopath, to having his 9-yr old daughter introduce Talk Shit, Get Shot, and of course Cop Killer. The set took a 180° turn from the killing fields and finished with his take on Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.”
Fifteen minutes before doors opened at GAMH, Ice stepped outside the front of the venue as a half-dozen bewildered fans waiting in line gasped in amazement to see their hero in the flesh on the streets of the Tenderloin.
Despite his quick appearance in San Francisco’s hood, it was not difficult to get as close to the O.G. inside the venue. Although the barricade kept people off the stage by a foot or two and really being all up in his grill, this show was as intimate as it gets.
Ice-T even had some time to show off a few of his local friends. O.G. pimp hustler Big Virgil Grandmaster was brought on stage for a few moments, as was Jello Biafra from Dead Kennedys, a fixture at seemingly every concert that ever happened in San Francisco and a collaborator of Ice’s all the way back to 1989.
Finding the full setlist has proved to be quite difficult, but from various sources, Ice performed the most from 1991’s O.G. Original Gangster, and also hit upon 1987’s Rhyme Pays, 1988’s Power, 1996’s VI: Return of the Real, and 2006’s Gangsta Rap.
1. video for unnamed new song
2. Ziplock
3. You Played Yourself
4. High Rollers
5. 6 ‘n the Mornin’
6. Girls L.G.B.N.A.F.
7. Gangsta Rap
8. Make the Loot Loop
9. The Tower OG
10. New Jack Hustler
11. O.G. Original Gangster
12. Colors
Mac Mall from Vallejo, CA opened the show.
