Aesop Rock played his rescheduled SF show on Sunday night, after someone broke into his tour van last July, stealing nearly all of his live equipment. The following day Aesop played a free ‘make-up’ show at Amoeba Records, which was a sample size of what his new record would sound like live. The full-length show at The Fillmore was well worth the wait.

Opening the night was Edison, Open Mike Eagle, and Dark TIme Sunshine, who set the stage perfectly for the main act.  Aesop’s stage presence was at it’s best Sunday night; he was calm, collected and seemingly content in his element. He kept the crowd on their toes with the help of DJ Big Wiz, and long term stage partner, Rob Sonic  (Aesop seems at his best with him by his side, subtly encouraging him with their apparent brother-like friendship). Another highlight was the free haircut segment – where early attendees could sign up for a free haircut on stage, and one would be randomly selected during the show to receive the honors. The result of which would have made any of the three stooges look like Don Draper when compared to this catastrophic cut.

Focusing primarily on tracks from his newest record, Skelethon and the Hail Mary Mallon album, Aesop Rock at The Fillmore this past weekend saved the older crowd favorites for last. Before asking and receiving suggestion from the crowd, he decided to finish up the night with “Big Bang” off the Float album, and “Daylight” from the Labor Days record.

Aesop’s style is his own. While gaining huge underground success with tracks like “Lucy” and “Daylight,” he has marched forward, creating fresh and stimulating content that has continually received critical acclaim along the way. During that time, he has also gained impressive production skills that have been on display both on his newest record, Skelethon, and the latest Felt record (slug+murs).

It’s no secret that we enjoy Aesop and the entire Rhyemsayers crew a great deal here at SF Critic, as a few of us were at one time your typical back-packing indie-hip-hop kids. Check below for a video I took last time we covered Brother Ali, and Aesop Rock showed up. The track, “Homemade Mummy,” can be found on Skelethon. Aesop and his crew will be out on tour for the remainder of the month.  If you don’t have a chance to catch them live, make sure to check out the new record.

-Written and Photographed by Darryl Kirchner.