{"id":517376,"date":"2016-03-17T11:43:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.fredericknewspost.com\/playlist\/?p=517376"},"modified":"2016-03-17T11:43:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:43:09","slug":"road-stitch-early-takes-sxsw-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2016\/03\/17\/road-stitch-early-takes-sxsw-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Road: Stitch Early Takes The SXSW Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StitchSXSW1\"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 10:25 to 10:41 p.m. at South by Southwest 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Tuesday night, and it\u2019s late. A small crowd formulates. Then it disperses. Formulates. Disperses. The room is dark. A disco ball swirls as it hangs from the ceiling. A mini light show that best resembles a Coldplay concert (if the Coldplay concert had no budget) flashes periodically. Specs of smoke creek out through an elevated smoke machine to the right of the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its best, the Bat Bar lays claim to about 60 people on this night. At its worst, the number sinks below 20.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frederick hip-hop artist Lorenzo Nichols, better known as Stitch Early, is anticipating his turn to take the spotlight. The clog at the door pushes him outside to wait his turn as the act before him finishes up. He\u2019s a towering individual, though, and from afar, you can see his head swivel with each passing second. He wants that microphone. He wants that stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYo, I don\u2019t know what the hell is going to happen when he goes up there, but man,\u201d Brennon Lee, a fellow Fredericktonian in Austin to work for the magazine The Fader, says minutes before Nichols\u2019 set. \u201cIt\u2019s not gonna be like anything that\u2019s up there all night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. Nichols, who identifies as a Christian hip-hop artist, is surrounded by a plethora of perverse passages. At one point, the room erupts into a \u201cf— Donald Trump\u201d chant.<\/span><\/p>\n

The artist onstage a handful of slots before Nichols cuts through with lines like \u201csmoking weed like it\u2019s Earth Day.\u201d When each performer notes the city or state from which they came, the proclamation is flanked by countless expletives. \u201cJersey in this motherf—— building,\u201d seems to be a particularly popular phrase.<\/span><\/p>\n

When his time comes, he trips up the backing house DJ by asking him to stop the music just as his first song, \u201cFree,\u201d kicks off. Instead, Nichols opts for about 45 seconds of a cappella rhymes. The move doesn\u2019t play like he might want it to, and instead of capturing onlookers\u2019 attention, the \u201ccrowd disperses\u201d part of the evening\u2019s equation begins to take hold.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMake some noise if you\u2019re feeling good,\u201d he proclaims. Then he requests a favor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan you fill up the front right here?\u201d he asks with little success before eventually suggesting that listeners move their hands from side to side if they were born free. A smattering of arms raise like flags hung at three-quarter staff. He\u2019s trying. Hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

So hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things get better through the next 14 minutes. More people wander in through the doors, slowly but surely. Better yet, they don\u2019t leave.<\/span><\/p>\n

About midway through his time, Nichols ditches the stage to stand in the crowd gathered directly in front of it. This works better than anything else he\u2019ll do all night. When he launches into \u201cFeel Good,\u201d which appeared on his debut set, \u201cAll Rise,\u201d people passing by on the street stop to take it in. It\u2019s a minor victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

He ends the performance the way he began it: with an a cappella flow. He then notes that he\u2019s brought promotional materials he hopes to give away at a table in the middle of the room. \u201cIt\u2019s Stitch Early on everything,\u201d he tells the crowd, referring to all social media platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n

The night\u2019s emcee backs him up, repeating the information as Nichols steps back outside to get off the stage. A few people come to the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within a half-hour, Nichols, along with his friend and co-worker Brian Closs, are walking down Sixth Street to return to their rental car. It\u2019s 11:11 when the Kia\u2019s motor turns.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re excited, even if the night wasn\u2019t perfect. Nichols\u2019 voice is scratchy, almost gone, but he\u2019s eager to reflect on his moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a basketball game \u2014 10 to 15 seconds can feel like two to three minutes,\u201d the rapper explains as he drives through the Austin night. \u201cI felt like I was up there for a while. It wasn\u2019t a rush, but it was a feeling, an indescribable feeling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His voice is coming back, sounding less like cellphone service gone awry and more like a man with a cold.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really am drained, though.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a quarter after 9 the next morning when Nichols finds himself back in that rental car. He didn\u2019t get to sleep until about 3 a.m. The adrenaline was too much to dismiss and he received various messages and well-wishes from friends and family late into the night. Plus, he needed to keep working on the cover design of his upcoming EP, \u201cThe Great Compromise.\u201d Gloss passed out soon after they returned to their hotel room.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nichols, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t have time for passing out, let alone sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the night ahead of him, he plans to head to the Fader Fort to catch a showcase called the Kingdom Experience at 7 p.m. From there, he\u2019ll drive to Waco with Gloss to stay at a friend\u2019s place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rest won\u2019t be much of an option, however, because the duo flies out at 5:30 a.m. on Friday. And because they didn\u2019t want to spring for another night in a hotel room, the hope is to get to the Austin airport late Thursday night\/Friday morning. Nichols is then booked for another quick 15-minute set that night in Silver Spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m off Saturday,\u201d he concludes lightheartedly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nichols wants to come back next year. He\u2019s hoping he\u2019ll be able to land more showcases by then and, if he starts saving up now, his plan is to accumulate enough money to purchase a VIP badge, which ran as high as $1,745 in 2016. He wants to bring a band with him the next time around, and while it might be easy to leave South By Southwest discouraged, the Icon Natn entrepreneur refuses to stoop to self-pity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fun experience, it was a learning experience,\u201d he said. \u201cI tried to come with no expectations because I didn\u2019t want to throw expectations too high. We wanted to take what we had and make the most of the opportunity. Next year, I\u2019m coming with all the stops pulled out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be easy to grab negatives,\u201d Nichols continues, eyes focused on the road in front of him. \u201cI could make up a lot of negatives, but it\u2019s like, for what? What\u2019s that going to do at the end of the day? What I can say is that more people know about me now than before I came to South by Southwest, and I\u2019m cool with that. I had people come up to me and say they really, really like my music. There\u2019s nothing negative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Texas scenery passes and Nichols weaves his way through highway traffic, a silence falls upon the car. The only soundtrack is visual. Hotels. Dirt. Dying grass. Run-down shops. Raggedy convenience stores. Seemingly abandoned gas stations. It\u2019s one of the rare moments in the last three days that the space is sonically empty.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then Nichols\u2019 voice creeps up, that bass baritone unmistakable. It\u2019s not as loud as it was on Monday, but it sounds just a little more at ease, a little more sure. He\u2019s not whispering, but it\u2019s unclear if he wants anybody to hear him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just have to wait for people to catch up,\u201d he offers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seconds pass like the faded lines on the highway and his tone raises, this time ensuring that he won\u2019t go unheard.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just have to wait for people to catch up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 10:25 to 10:41 p.m. at South by Southwest 2016. It\u2019s Tuesday night, and it\u2019s late. A small crowd formulates. Then it disperses. Formulates. Disperses. The room is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-517376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-on-the-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}