There's a difference between nostalgia and timelessness, and Illinois rappers The Cool Kids walk on a tightrope very gingerly between the two. Everything from their wardrobe choice (a Penny Hardaway jersey and a Police T-shirt) to their lyrics (“I’m the only third grader in this school with a beeper,”) suggest a hefty nostalgia for the late 1980s and early '90s. They've even referred to themselves as the “Black Beastie Boys” (take a minute and process that one.)
This nostalgic wave was almost certainly lost on the cheap booze-fueled Maryland students in attendance at Santa Fe Cafe Friday night -- most in the crowd were likely born around the memorable time in question. But the early-1990s and late-'80s hip-hop songs from which the Cool Kids draw inspiration still resonated heavily with the crowd. More importantly, the duo's aesthetic focuses primarily on having a good time, something these college students were more than willing to do. They had also been suitably warmed up by College Park favorites the Sugar Junkies, who differentiated themselves less with their rhyming ability and more with the presence of a (rather underused) guitarist, who was more than capable of laying down a funky groove.
Friday's show saw the Cool Kids primarily performing tracks from 2008's Bake Sale, an album that many in attendance clearly did not own: The duo's lone request for the audience to sing along with them went more or less unanswered, but that didn't stop arms from raising up in the air as MCs Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks sauntered around the stage.
In short, this show should not have worked out well. The Cool Kids showed us that they could start a party back in 2007, when they opened for M.I.A., but it wasn't entirely clear at the start of their midtempo set Friday that they could finish one. The energy level onstage was good, not great, and their shtick was lost on a large part of the audience. All they had on their side were some classic hip-hop beats and an easy, fun-loving demeanor, but that turned out to be just enough.
