I must be getting old because the last few events that we’ve attended have been “throwbacks” but that is referring to popular people (actors, musicians) from the 90s and that really wasn’t that long ago.  Maybe I’m dating myself a bit.

Two weekends ago the wife and I headed to downtown Sac to grab some dinner.  While looking for parking we passed the Memorial Auditorium and saw a number of tents set up in front of the venue.  The signs on the tents read: V101 FM, 107.9, and 102.5 FM.  These are local stations hip hop, R&B, and Today’s hits.  Our interests were piqued so after sitting at the restaurant, I looked up who was playing that evening.  Turns out it was a stand up show with Chris Tucker.  I’ve been a fan of him for many years – both film and stand-up shows.  I’ve never seen him live and so the wife convinced me that we should walk over and see if they had tickets still (even though the show was starting).  YOLO right?  Lo and behold the wife procured some tickets and we found our way to the seats.

We were about 30 minutes past the start time but it was perfect timing.  As we sat, the opening act was signing off.  Within 5 minutes of sitting, Chris Tucker was on the stage.  I’ve been a fan of Chris Tucker in movies such as Friday, Rush Hour (series), The Fifth Element, etc.

Overall he performed for about 1.5 hours and was pretty funny.  There were a few jokes sprinkled in his performance that were recycled from previous stand ups that I’ve seen on Netflix and such.  He also gave props a few times to some recently deceased artists like Prince, Muhammad Ali, and the not so recently passed Michael Jackson.  It turned out to be a fun night and I’m glad for the spontaneity.

Then this past weekend my coworker kindly gifted us tickets to the V101 Summer Jam at Thunder Valley Resort & Casino (about an hour’s away from us).  We had gone to last year’s show and were excited for this year as well.

The lineup this year included: Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, SWV, K-Ci & JoJo, and Keith Sweat.  These artists are people who I listened to a fair amount through the 90s and into the early 2000s as well.  Compared to last year’s lineup (Bel Biv Devoe, Blackstreet w/ Teddy Riley & David Hollister, and Naughty By Nature), this year’s group of performers were more R&B and less fast-paced.  I think that definitely affected the crowd as it seemed more mellow this year than last year.  However it was still a great show.  V101 is the local “throwback” radio station that plays a lot of hip hop and R&B from the 90s and is a mainstay in my car.  They also have an exciting Block Party concert coming up this fall that we’re thinking about attending.

Due to my phone not taking the greatest pictures I have attached some but they’re not the best.

-StewsCat