Crudo (featuring Mike Patton and Dan the Automator) @ The Great American Music Hall (5/22/08)

When most new artists start out their career, they're usually forced to play small coffee shops or high school gymnasiums in order to build a fan base, practice in front of real audiences and hone their performances. In the case of Crudo, their very first live concert was in front of a nearly sold out audience at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last night.

In many respects, Crudo isn't necessarily a 'new' band. The 7-piece band is led by Mike Patton who rose to fame in the late 80's with the rock group Faith No More. Patton has once-again teamed with Dan the Automator, a long-time collaborator and local DJ and hip-hop producer who's gained recent critical praise for his work. Also joining them on-stage performing human beat box, background vocals and keyboard duties was a woman who goes by Butterscotch and who's performed with one of Patton's other recent bands, Peeping Tom.

The night's performance was surprisingly tight considering again, this was their very first show. But from the sounds of it, they've been practicing quite a bit and have a fairly deep repertoire of material that they performed for the enthusiastic crowd.

Besides being Crudo's first concert last night, it seems that it was a bit of a warm-up show before heading out to perform at this weekends Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state. These have been the only publicly announced tour dates so far. In fact, no news of an upcoming album has been released at this point either. So with the exception of a song, "Let's Go", that's been posted on the band's MySpace page, the majority of the songs last night were completely new to all in the audience.

If you're familiar with Mike Patton's history, you'll already know that he's somewhat difficult to describe in terms of the type of music that he's been involved with. Crudo is no exception. If you can imagine a mix of 70's funk, 80's hip-hop and a blend or traditional rock, with a sprinkling of Eminem, you'll be close to the mark of Crudo's sound.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me last night, so I wasn't able to grab any video of the show. But I've added "Let's Go" below. I've also found a decent video that someone else took and posted on YouTube. I've embedded the video further below.

Here's the setlist from the show. As I mentioned above, the majority of songs were new so the titles below are best guesses at the moment with the exception of the covers and "Let's Go".

Crudo Setlist:

• Running with the Devil (Van Halen)
  
• Too Many Strangers Keep Calling
  
• This is Your Countdown
  
• Are you Livin' in My World?
  
• Anger Management (Why Must God Punish Me?) (Lovage)
  
• Let's Go
  
• Human beat box solo by Butterscotch
  
• Make it Shine, Make it Rain
  
• Can't Stop, Won't Stop
  
• Are You Down With It? (Handsome Boy Modeling School)
  
• Are We Having Fun Yet?
  
• Pants on Fire
  
• I'm Gonna Get Ya'
  

Encore:

• I Am the DJ
  

Encore 2:

• Mojo (Peeping Tom)
  
• Life on Mars (David Bowie)
  

If you decide to check them out, be prepared for a fun hip-hop show and you won't be disappointed! As I referenced above, here's "This is Your Countdown": And if you're interested in Mike's other band, Faith No More, check out this review!