“Have A Nice Life” Tour | Murs and Guests Live Review | Backbooth, Orlando, FL | October 31, 2015

by Ron Grant • November 2, 2015

Nine times out of ten, hitting up a live show on Halloween is going to be a peculiar experience. And it doesn’t get any more peculiar than downtown Orlando on Halloween night. Making way up and down Orange Avenue, Church, Pine and other streets in close proximity on the slightly cooler-than-average night among the dark skyline and the swarms of Jedis, human mice, vampires, pirates and superheroes has become a show unto itself. But even with all of the grotesque, ghastly, ghoulish, raunchy and hilarious on full display, my real mission came in the form of getting over to Backbooth to catch Los Angeles underground emcee and Strange Music artist Murs put on a stripped-down, engagingly raw set. And though the party vibe of downtown was front and center outside, Murs and his tour mates helped to make one thing clear inside the confines of Backbooth: this was a night for Hip Hop’s underdogs.

Not a packed house in the least, I entered Backbooth to about 10-15 additional people who had just taken in the set from local emcee on the rise Split Soul, who got fully in the spirit by performing with a prosthetic, hanging zombie eye. Might as well, right? Unfortunately I missed his set, but was just in time to begin with West Coast duo King Fantastic taking the stage. The robotic but thick an syrupy beats paired with Killer Reese’s aggressive but mellow old school flow made for a set that was smooth but just rough enough around the edges due to his dark comic relief, including the memorable lyric, “I like thick broads, fat butts and big titties/but I’ll f*ck a vegan if that skinny b*tch pretty.”

After the theatrics of King Fantastic came the self-proclaimed “crankiest rapper ever, dead or alive” in the form of Michigan’s Red Pill. An emcee that truly embraces and revels in his awkwardness, Pill gave a contemplative, soulful, funny and honest performance along with fellow Detroit-based emcee-turned-set DJ for the night James Gardin. Constantly joking around with the intimate crowd, Red Pill’s songs touched on everything from lost hope to hating a terrible job to life passing his uninspired twenty-something friends by. His set ended with his impressively passionate and distraught song “Look At What This World Did To Us.”

Then it was time to make way for the headliner himself. After the in-between set music of Gang Starr, Run The Jewels, J. Cole, Jay Z and Wu Tang, Murs came out to Drake’s “Back to Back”, coordinated from head to toe in his black and white t-shirt, tights and gymmies. His energy was ready for a crowd of 300 instead of 30 or under. But being a veteran of the stage, he knew very well how to balance out the serious and the silly, the mellow and the lively. And Murs kept the awkward, dark humor train chugging along when admitting to the crowd his multiple accounts of drunk fights and altercations in Orlando every time he comes to town. At one point, the Cali emcee even described downtown Orlando as being the antithesis to Disney World, and gave his business partner a proper chiding for not getting him anything to eat earlier in the day.

But it was Murs’ laundry list of underground Hip Hop gems that made for a set that was equal parts raucous, intelligent, humorous, manic and sincere. The L.A. native seemed to leave no stone unturned. His set included well-known joints like “God’s Work” and “3:16”, as well as a few well-timed joints off the Murray’s Revenge album that got the crowd even more hype such as “Dark Skinned White Girls”, “Silly Girl”, “Yesterday and Today” and a soothing rendition of homage to his hometown in “L.A.” Towards the end of the set, with his pack of squares and a bottle of Jameson in tow, Murs touched on some more serious topics like the loss of a friend to the streets and the loss of love on songs like “Walk Like A Man”, “The Worst”, “Remember to Forget” and “First Love.” All the while, you could tell that Murs made the scant crowd of dedicated fans feel like they got their money’s worth. His set ended with the James Blunt-sampled Hip Hop power ballad “Everything”, a fitting finale to a diverse and enthralling Hip Hop live show.

In the end, the “Have A Nice Life” Tour could have leaned on cheap Halloween gimmicks and trying to create a party atmosphere. But not a single one of the performers did that. Instead, they reach deep into themselves and shared a piece of their life experiences with all who attended. No tricks or maneuvering, no stunts or fabrications. Just Murs and his fellow talented emcees dedicated to their craft. And after that, off into downtown Orlando’s curious Halloween vibe we all went once again.