For the last handful of years, indie hip hop artist Grieves has hosted a now annual The Out Cold Tour, bringing some of his personal favorite artists and collaborators along on the road with him. Stopping at the Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, Az, this year was the 3rd iteration of The Out Cold Tour and found Grieves tapping Australia based Solo from Horrorshow Crew and Salt Lake City based Street Sweepers to share the stage with him. Shows at Rebel are always super intimate, and this was no different. Packed tight, close up the the stage, there was no doubt that everyone in attendance was ready for Grieve’s now annual party.
The Street Sweepers (DJ Ocelot, Zac Ivie, and Dumb Lucky) kicked the night wide open, taking stage by storm replete with sanitation uniforms and brooms. The epitome of “Party Rock” meets “Indie Hip Hop”, The Street Sweepers got those in attendance early up and off the floor as they physically and lyrically bouncing all over the stage and each other. Ocelot started the evening off with a DJ set, spinning the crowd up with a mix of old and new favorite tracks from across hip hops history. Dumb Lucky and Zac jumped on stage, brooms in hand, and their full set kicked off with bars and skits galore. The crowd was fully in on the fun and chaos, which carried over into Solo from Horrorshow’s set.
Horrorshow’s Solo was up next, and he took to the stage almost immediately upon The Street Sweeper’s stepping off of it. Hailing from Australia, with The Out Cold tour being his first foray on a US tour, Solo’s work was relatively unknown to the majority of the crowd. From the incredibly warm reception he got, that lack of familiarity certainly won’t last long. A master lyricist with almost 20 years under his belt as an emcee, Solo hooked the crowd immediately and led them like the pied pipered them through a solid 40 minute set. He played tracks from across the Horrorshow discography, opening with “Melancholholic” off of 2022’s Bad Feelings, and traveling through “Cherry Blossom” off of 2017’s Bardo State, “The Rain” from 2009’s Inside Story. Showing off his range of talents, Solo busted out a ukulele for a stripped down and heartfelt version of “Walk You Home”. For those few in the crowd already familiar with Horrorshow’s work, this set was nothing short of phenomenal.
Finally, the mastermind of the Out Cold tour himself took to the stage to raucous applause from everyone in the room. Launching into a set that traversed Irreversible, 88 Keys & Counting, Together/Apart, Winter & the Wolves, Running Wild, and their latest album, Canopy, Grieves made damn sure that everyone got to hear a track from their personal favorite album. With Pants manning the decks at the back of the stage, Grieves lived on the front edge of it, blurring the line between performer and crowd, leaning off stage and into the midst of the crowd with the mic on a majority of tracks. Truth be told, it was difficult at times to hear the man himself over the crowd in Rebel singing alongside him. The highlight of the night was when he had Solo jump up on stage to tackle their latest single, I.K.T.Y.K, which dropped earlier in February. Having taken a break a few years back from music and touring (he never really left the game, just wound up taking a hiatus), Grieves’s Out Cold Tour’s have become an annual launching point for him to kick off some chaos and get into the groove of touring life. While the Out Cold tour came to its conclusion shortly after the Phoenix date, Grieves’ will be back on the road again the rest of this spring. Grieves will be headlining The Family Roadtrip from March-April, and then he jumps onto Prof’s “Bad Time Boy Tour” in April and Chris Webby’s “Last Wednesday” tour which will take him across Canada this May.
