Gym Class Heroes, RX Bandits, K-Os, P.O.S.
Irving Theater
Wednesday, March 14

The New York hip-hop act Gym Class Heroes has seen its latest single, “Cupid’s Chokehold,” take off on teenybopper radio stations across the county. But the band had the good taste to bring along a slew of killer opening acts to the Irving Theater when it visited last Wednesday.

The evening opened up with the eclectic hip-hop of K-Os. Sporting a full band to flesh out his intricate beats, K-Os ripped through the highlights of his latest, greatest disc, “Atlantis: Hymns for Disco.” The all-too-short half-hour set forced him to overlook many of his gems, but his phenomenal ode to Norse rappers, “Valhalla,” did make the cut.

Next up was indie-rapper P.O.S., who has more in common with Sage Francis and Spank Rock than with T.I. and Lil’ Jon. P.O.S. was aware of the fact that most of the crowd was there simply to hear “Cupid’s Chokehold,” and he had fun heckling the crowd for it.

Although not headlining, the night belonged to prog-ska wizards RX Bandits. The Bandits recently released its fourth album “…and the Battle Begun” to much critical acclaim. The set consisted of mostly songs from “Battle” with a few tracks from 2003’s “The Resignation.” The reggae protest jam “Overcome” extracted the greatest reaction from the crowd. While the band was on fire, the crowd was not. Most of the crowd was there solely for Gym Class Heroes and had very little interest in the opening acts. While the promotion from 93.1 FM Radio Now indubitably helped sell out the show, the pre-teen crowd the station attracted was not eager to hear new music. The Bandits stole the show, but most of the crowd was unaware.

After a brief set-up, Gym Class Heroes stormed the stage and ripped into “Papercuts” off of 2004’s “Papercut Chronicles.” The song, one of the band’s strongest, sounded even better live, as it was fleshed out almost into a jam and even briefly morphed into “Summer Skin” by Death Cab for Cutie. After a handful of tracks off of its latest album, “As Cruel as School Children,” including “The Queen and I,” the band played its unofficial hit, “Taxi Driver,” which references dozens of pop-punk and emo bands. After “Cupid’s Chokehold,” at least a quarter of the crowd left the theater. The Heroes finished up with the best track from its new disc, “Scandalous Scholastics,” and dismissed the remaining teenyboppers to be shuttled home by the caravan of mini vans waiting outside.