boston progress radio

The energy and vibe of Friday night’s Beat Collective performance on the 4th Anniversary of East Meets Words had been building up for quite some time. After countless hours hanging out and jamming at the East Meets West Bookstore had honed their cohesiveness, it all came to a zenith with a performance that felt like it was the hottest ticket in town (but BPAC never sold any tickets).

With guest feature performers TVu displaying her mad talent on the mic, Vudoo Soul with his smooth vocals and downright insane keyboard skills, Afro D with his wickedness on the horn and Glenn on guitar, extraordinary energy was added to the regular Beat Collective members, Dave Kong (The DNA remixer), Pen Khek Chear (a 65-year old senior citizen from Upper Darby, PA rapping since he was five), Victor Chien (aka MC Papadop), Pedro Magni (the Filipino sensation), and Charles “Chucky” Kim (the Kangol hat lovin’ Californian on bass guitar).

Words cannot do justice what was performed since a lot of it was freestyled which fed off the energy from the crowd. One really had to be there in order to experience the exuberance of the performance. Those that were there had few seats to sit on and a lot of the audience was either standing near the doorway or in the back stairway next to the store listening breathlessly to the music.

Before the feature, 15 open mic performers came up to show their stuff to the crowd with words and music that were just as powerful and vibrant as Beat Collective. Each one displayed a passion and heart for their pieces more so than any artist in today’s popular culture. Overall, it was a night that was unreal, full of energy, and good vibes from Beat Collective and friends. It will be very difficult to top this month’s open mic because they really brought down the house (or bookstore).

(Follow this link for the BPAC Photo Gallery of this event.)

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Tags: Open Mic, Recap.