B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces

Photo by Sandy Carson

B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces

There's nothing subtle about B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces. Not the incendiary name and certainly not the all caps. (Okay, I'll give you the spaces.) Not the rumbling bass booming from the fuck-off PA system he hauls to and abuses at every gig or the way he thrashed about on the cement floor of the cavernous Barcelona Wednesday night. The unhinged screamcore Houston rapper unleashed a brutal assault of noise-rock and rhymes on a mostly unsuspecting audience for 20 minutes, repeatedly shoving the mic toward the haphazard pile of speakers to produce an ear-piercing feedback effect. "Look at You" from recent LP Spred Luv lasted no more than 30 seconds, while "Stay Up" – written about a friend who passed away – was only a touch longer. B L A C K I E crawled on the floor inside a circle of slack-jawed onlookers, occasionally rising up to run as far as the mic cord would allow. Spitting the closing lines of "Dope & Doper" a cappella, a now shirtless B L A C K I E simply yanked the power source of his sound system out of the wall and hoarsely wailed, "You're dope but I'm doper." No argument.