[Night Out] Soundcloud Go Launch Party @ Flash Factory (03/31/2016)
Bob Moses performing at the Soundcloud Go launch party @ Flash Factory
Last week, one of my favorite music services for stumbling across baby bands, Soundcloud, made an interesting move that I'm honestly very anxious to see how it plays out. The soon to be 9 year old streaming site announced a new offering: a paid subscription service that boasts more tracks along with ad-free and offline listening. To celebrate, they threw quite the fun shindig over at Flash Factory that I had the honor of being invited to.
The plan for the night was to catch as much of The Saint Johns as I could at Gramercy Theater and then make a run for it to Flash Factory in time to see Jr Jr, who I had been informed would be there, along with A$AP Ferg and Chance The Rapper.
By the time I managed to get to Flash Factory I could tell from the vibrations outside that I had absolutely missed Jr Jr, which was a major bummer. I hadn't seen them in a few years and was really looking forward to seeing them, especially since I enjoyed their self-titled album they dropped last year. Alas, it just wasn't meant to be.
Something about those vibrations that I could hear sounded familiar as I waited in line to get in. It wasn't A$AP Ferg, who I assumed would be next. "Who is that? Oh, they're playing Bob Moses in between acts. That's cool." As I get closer I noticed that they're playing a lot of the new Bob Moses record, Days Gone By, but it's out of order....and sounds very live. Naturally, I can't help but turn to the person putting my wristband on and exclaim, "IS THAT BOB FUCKIN' MOSES!?"
IT WAS!
They were a last minute addition to the lineup, which was both awesome and unfortunate. It was awesome for me because I have been *dying* to see them live, but it appeared that other attendees were unaware of their splendor. Don't worry, I made sure to turn to as many people as I could after their set and say, "Yo, not joking, you need to buy/stream/whatever that record as soon as you can and get ready to want to make out to that record for the rest of your life!" That record is dark and sexy as hellllllll. If you haven't heard it yet, you should get on that.
I was honestly so pleasantly caught off guard by the last minute lineup addition that it just further intensified the rest of the evening. After the Soundcloud co-founders came out and said some heartfelt words about how excited they were for this next chapter of Soundcloud's legacy, A$AP Ferg took the stage and got the crowd riled up and ready for Chance the Rapper to spit some crazy amount of fire. His performance was further heightened for me as I was conveniently standing next to a gentleman who was apparently one of his biggest fans. Actually, everyone around me were all genuine music fans, which doesn't happen often when you're in VIP. But that's why Soundcloud is great, because they actually employ big music fans. It was nice because we all collectively geeked out together throughout the evening.
I actually ended up going out with a few of them after the party was over. It was a late night out, but it was a great night out for sure.
You can peep my photos below. I will be giving Soundcloud Go a whirl in the next few days and will report back with my thoughts on that as well, so keep an eye out for that.
