Although sometimes I think I imagined it all and the moment captured here is a bit tame in comparison I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Sage Francis’ interactive rapping in person before. I have foggy memories of people getting thrown off stage and face slaps. But I was younger and I tended to drink so this may or may not be true.

update: Sage explains

In March I played 2 shows on the same day in Las Vegas. The first show was a pop-punk festival called The Extreme Thing. Despite how out of place I felt, this was an incredibly fun performance for me. The second show was an after party at The Palms. During the spoken word portion of my show I heard someone yelling “YOU SUCK!” from the back of the room. I was having such a good time at this show that it was easy for me to shrug off. No issue. I used this as an opportunity to channel Dude Lebowski and I said, “Well…that’s like…you’re OPINION, man.”

But the heckling persisted. Apparently, he was only at the show because he wanted to dance. “Fair enough,” I thought. Since I had a cordless microphone I made my way through the crowd during the final song and invited him to dance with me. Turns out he didn’t really want to dance. There was too much poop in his pants.

You may think it’s odd that this is one of my favorite show moments, but it’s so satisfying to confront people like this face-to-face. Real life > internet.