While a rabble of twenty-somethings mulled at the Middle East, patiently awaiting Minus the Bear and bravely soldiering through the tediously boring Ela, Doseone and Jel of Subtle worked the band’s merch table and chatted with the few who came specifically to see this genre-bending group. “This one will be a lot better,” promised Adam “Doseone” Drucker, referring to their headlining show at T.T. the Bear’s last year when they competed for an audience with friend and Anticon brethren Why? “We’ll sound a lot better… it’ll be good!”  Confident and proud Doseone is. Wrong he was not.

The band tore into “Swanmeat” first, the vocoder-heavy alternate version of “Song Meat.”  They went on to play some newer songs; racing through “Middle Class Stomp” like it was a reflex and following through with the song’s crunching second act, “Middle Class Kill.” They dipped into their debut album with “A New White,” and the danceable “F.K.O.” got everybody doing just that while the psychedelic “She” proved to be a crowd swayer.      

Doseone was theatrical and passionate, interacting with the crowd and his striped, skull-headed mannequin torso.  He is one of the few vocalists who truly treats his voice as an instrument, using live effects on stage to give what is normally an “album-only” feel to the songs. But what really won the crowd over was his precise and lightning-fast rapping, unmatched by most hip-hop artists in the spotlight today.  Jordan Dalrymple pounded out Subtle’s unique beats on his drum kit while Jeffrey “Jel” Logan followed closely, hammering on his drum machine, adding more distinctive percussive elements to the band’s sound.  Melodies rang on cello, played by Alexander Kort with keys and an assortment of wind instruments played by Marty Dowers.

Subtle closed the set with “The Mercury Craze,” arguably their most poppy song, and the single from their newest album, For Hero: For Fool. Notably absent from the set were fan favorites “Earthsick” and “I Heart L.A.,” but for an opening act, Subtle’s performance was more than satisfying and hopefully turned some people on to a band that could really turn the mainstream tide away from the current drudge factories.