Before we get into the musical accomplishments (and the few weak spots) of local electro crew Truckasauras’ “Kevin Collabo” hiphop massive that went down last Friday at Neumos, let’s just take a minute to appreciate what a monumental organizational feat the whole thing represented. From the floor, even a regular rap show always looks like a nightmare to run—the lateness, the no-shows, the hangers-on crowding the stage—and these guys wrangled 36 MCs for this thing. Hats off.

• kaitlin Swezey

The evening began with a set of Truckasauras originals, some of which the band’s Adam Swan said they hadn’t played out in a while. Swan was weirdly, unnecessarily apologetic in introducing their instrumental set, but it sounded fantastic, the bass thick and punchy, everything dialed in even better than at their also exceptional sounding Block Party set there last month. They ended the set with Tyler and Trent Moorman on drums (it takes a ballsy drummer to try to compete with an 808), and with more people dancing up front than I think I’ve ever seen at a Truckasauras show.

They split the rap portion of the evening into two sets. Asun started things off with one of the more successful freestyles of the night (“this is all right now/the only thing that was written down is the chorus”). Next was Canary Sing, whose upbeat “Lightyears Away” was an early highlight. The first and biggest dud of the night belonged to Virus, who introduced his rap by saying “I got some conceptual shit for you here”—his concept being, basically, syllable-intensive El-P worship—and ended it by saying “I don’t really do choruses guys, so bear with me” before leaning way to hard on the stock refrain “live as fuck when I rhyme with Truck,” and finally, futilely announcing, “I got CDs!” Yeesh. Neema brough the momentum back up with an authoritative set, then DJs Introcut, WD4D, and Scratchmaster Joe joined the band to scratch over an instrumental number, and Tilson closed the set with a typically adept, affable rap that referenced Prince’s “When Doves Cry” backed by Tyler and Moorman on drums.

The second set began with a false start from Specs One, who took the stage wearing a backpack, before ditching it and settling comfortably into his usual, weed-hazy space neighber steez. Mash Hall rushed the stage four people deep for their busy, blast-off “Meet Your Replacement.” SK and Spaceman, sportin’ stunna shades, rocked a percussive chorus of, “hyphy, dumb, stupid, retarded/You’re not from the Bay, so stop it/I’m from the Northwest homie/I’m rockin’.” Filkoe and a friend came out wearing a head-dress and a pope hat and an elephant nose and did some granola rap about animals. The Sota Boys came out rocking sweatbands and dayglo workout gear for a boy-bandish number about “feeling the burn”; at this point, the Truck’s great experiment began to take on shades of an endurance test, and the crowd began to thin slightly. Finally, Blue Scholars’ Geologic and a compatriot Thig Natural of the Physics came out Goretex-clad and snapping 35mm cameras, asking “whatever happened to the focus on the rap?”—an odd question for a night in which the producers were at least as much the stars as the rappers. Champagne Champagne closed with a rap about “Earth Girls are Easy” over an old Truck track, Mark Gadjadhar and Tyler on drums, Pearl Dragon drinking onstage for a second before security promptly relieved him of his cup.

Things closed with everyone returning to the stage for an interminable freestyle hand-off over the Truck’s version of “The Bridge is Over,” drummers drumming, DJs scratching, three dozen or more rappers each angling for their turn on the mic. Like the night itself, it was an inspired, ambitious spectacle that couldn’t help but exhaust a little towards the end. Still, here’s hoping someone either recorded the show off the Neumos soundboard or that the Truck can work their organizational magic again to get these tracks laid down in the studio; it would be a good look for the MCs, the Truck, and the whole damn town.

More photos after the jump...

all photos by Kaitlin Swezey