Weekends are all about relaxing on your sacred twin days off from a hectic five days in the office, but summer weekends add a dimension of perfect-temperatured evenings and a sense of liveliness and spontaneity that may not normally be on your radar. This past weekend, I embarked on an adventure downtown into the depths of a King St. alley. It sounds sketchy, but I was following a sound wave of music that was tempting my ears as it sliced through the Saturday night air.
I opened one of Charleston’s famed black wrought iron gates and entered the graffiti lined narrow corridor known as Kevsco Alley, my friends following cautiously. The stage was set up at the end, a makeshift set blocked by a pretty big group of hipsters sipping on PBR and simultaneously swaying in sync with the beat. The sound in that alley was crazy. It really echoed and made it seem that much more enhanced than a normal venue might have offered.
The group playing was a duo of Columbia-based new-to-the-scene electronic/R&B artists Thi Q. Lam and Mason Youngblood, stage-named Tiger Hudson. I’ve known Lam since my freshman year at USC and have had the pleasure of dueting with him vocally and on the keys as well. This new project he has come up with, however, is on a whole new professional level in the midst of limited funds, and he’s pushing the envelope on the current tour with non-venue venues like this alley performance. It definitely added a sense of adventure to the night and was also super cool to see people dancing on balconies above and joining from King St. without any idea of what was going on at first.
If we’re talking sound, Tiger Hudson, signed to Columbia label Scenario Records, blends a melancholy yearning in vocals with a cyclical and transcendental synth echo. The group just dropped their debut EP at the end of April, featuring 4 intoxicating tracks. You can check out the Burn EP on Soundcloud and buy it on Bandcamp. Oh, and you should also check out the sick music video for “Indiana.”
Support SceneSC by clicking the “like” button below.
