It’s only Tuesday, technically Wednesday as I write this, but it feels like a Friday night at the Showbox Market when Berner performs. The Big Pescado rolled into Seattle with all of his homies, The Exotikz and the Cookies for an early 420 celebration.
Pulling up to the Showbox Market, a line of kids in Cookies hats and hoodies wrapped around the corner. By the time we rolled up and smoked a blunt of Nigerian and White Tahoe Cookies to channel the spirit of The Big Pescado, the line had dispersed and we walked right through security and into the venue.
As soon as I grabbed a gin and tonic from the bar, the host Winston came on to introduce BadYoshi, a duo from Tacoma. Yodi Mac and Scribemecca only had five songs to get the crowd warmed up. They performed hits “Bag It Up,” “40,025” and several songs from their debut self-titled EP. Their stage presence was high energy and the set was dope, but it was easy to see this crowd was here for Berner and Berner alone. Their energy never bled into the crowd like at previous BadYoshi performances I’ve witnessed.
Anonymous The Dude, The Cookies Boys, and other openers from Berner’s entourage performed as people slowly filled in. Some of their performances were low energy and the security was cracking down hard on anybody smoking. They were confiscating weed, putting it out, and escorting people towards the exit. This contributed to a scattered and weird feeling in the crowd, but everything turned around as soon as Berner’s entourage introduced him and brought him on stage.
The dance floor filled out quickly and smoke plumes sprouted up like California wildfires after a drought. The combination of a packed out dance floor with the sheer volume of people smoking, made it almost impossible for security to hamper stoner efforts like previously in the evening. I even got in on the action midway through the show. I switched spots in the crowd after some amped up meat-head was trying way too hard to get us to “his level.” (My cocaine senses were tingling.) After I moved to the left side of the stage, I was handed half of a joint, which I finished quickly to avoid the security flashlight beam meandering my way through the fog of stoned humans.
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Berner played all the hits from The Big Pescado like “Greed,” “Noid,” and “Wait For It.” He rocked plenty of fan favorites from previous projects like “20 Joints,” “Wax Room,” “Xanax and Patron,” and many others. In between songs Bern would toss bags of Exotikz Lemonade into the crowd.
Berner is effortless on stage, he doesn’t have to move much because his flow and music really speak for themselves. The sound was on point all night and Berner’s flow was effortless. As everyone in the room smoked more cannabis, the crowd became more united around Berner’s smooth, enigmatic presence.
By the end of the night, there wasn’t a hint of weirdness in the room and the energy had completely turned around. (It didn’t hurt that cocaine guy got kicked out for causing problems.) Berner performed to a packed and gracious house. He thanked the fans at the end of the show for supporting him through a fully independent music career and thanked the Showbox Market for letting the audience smoke with the artists; which only happened for a small portion of the night from my vantage point.
Berner Performs To A Passionate Crowd
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