Common and N.E.R.D. help everyone unleash their inner geek

- JESSICA O'NEAL

Common and N.E.R.D. indulged a league of geeked out, hipsters at the intimate concert hall of The Tabernacle in Atlanta.
  

I was surprised when I learned the show was called "Souled Out." It should have been named, "Unifying the Ghetto Nerd." It was a celebration of the 21st century beatnik. However, the unique crowd was to be expected from the home of eccentric music artists like, Cee-Lo Green or Outkast.
    

Skinny jeans, high top sneakers, with light bling scattered on novelty tees was the main dress code among the afro-centric and diverse crowd. Pharrell Williams, lead singer of N.E.R.D. embraced the stylish audience shouting, "They'll want to be dressing like you next year."

Atlanta artist, Janelle Monae, began the parade of psychedelic hip-hop. I must say, I wasn't too keen on Ms. Monae before she performed. Her theatrical R&B album never intrigued me. The skeptical group of girls beside me felt the same way. Not only did she convert us, Monae had liberated souls making you unafraid to loss control during the rest of the night.

    

Imitating her alien robot persona from her album, Metropolis: The Chase Suite, this odd petite girl stormed out rocking a female version of an old Temptations outfit. Her voice reflected Sarah Vaughn or Ella Fitzgerald, singing on funky, rock tunes. She moved like James Brown in his prime, but had the swagger of Andre 3000 with her own futuristic jerks.
    

From the beginning of the show singing the high energy "Violent Stars Happy Hunting," to sobering the mood with her remake of Nat King Cole's "Smile," Monae had you with her every step of the way.
    

There was nothing sacred or untouched on stage, she crowd surfed and fiercely pulled her doo-wop styled Mohawk. The cynical convert beside me explained it best, "God she's weird, but I'm loving her."
    

N.E.R.D. made it a point to keep the crowd hyped, although the third part of the trio, Chad Hugo, was nowhere in sight. With their vast instrumentation in the background, N.E.R.D. brought the crowd to a newer level of high; Pharrell was giving it up for the "CNN junkies." He said he didn't need to remind us to vote because he knew we (geeks) would. The same way he knew we would love the band's rendition of the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army."
    

Politics guided N.E.R.D.'s playlist from their album, Seeing Sounds. As Pharrell and band mate Shay Haley rapped to the pulsating rhythms of "Kill Joy," saying "to you they might look beautiful, but they're rotten in the inside…Beautiful losers." Pharrell sarcastically screams, "This one's for John McCain."
    

When they played their oldies like "Brain" or "Lapdance," the audience marinated in Pharrell's energy. The lead singer actively interacted with the crowd, and the band created a mosh pit on stage during a spirited performance of "Rock Star."
    

Even with all the distracting groupies on stage during, "Everybody Nose" and "She Wants to Move," I was still embarrassingly lusting over Pharrell. The women wanted to be with him and the guys wanted to be him.
    

But, before he left the stage he wanted to make sure we were all voting for his candidate. He whispered to the crowd, "Who are you voting for?" and the band chanted "O-ba-ma" as they left the stage.
    

Common brought a different type of vibe to the modern crowd. He brought the same energy as N.E.R.D. and accomplished it better. The rapper/actor didn't require an entourage to back him up to get the crowd's hands in the air. All he needed was the talent that has kept him around for over a decade.
    

The show was theatrical. The stage was set like the inside of a club where a bar, bartender, and girls were all included. There were bits of dialogue between him and female clubbers on stage before he performed each of his classics. One lucky female crowd member was brought on stage to get a drink while Common serenaded her to the romantic track, "Come Close."
    

Along with tracks from his albums Be and Finding Forever, he performed around seven new tracks from his LP, Universal Mind Control, which will be released at the end of December. Title track, "Universal Mind Control," and a song he performed at the end of the show called "Gladiator" found Common experimenting with tempos and I found myself begging for more.
    

The rapper kept the political theme going as well. He encouraged the crowd to vote for what's right. He added to the rhetoric, "I'm not saying not just vote for any candidate, but I'm talking about Obama."
    

Common demonstrated that hip-hop and intellectualism grows better with age. He was the ideal ending for the night.
    

This concert not only satisfied us southern, hip-hop geeks, it empowered us.

Check it
N.E.R.D. - Spazz

Janelle Monae performing Violent Stars/Happy Hunting