The Pomona show was off the hinges! (Or some other slang phrase that makes me sound less lame.)

First I have to state the biggest thrill of the night was that Eddy Zheng was there, and he performed a poem in which he even namechecked Beats Rhymes & Rice. Bao, Kiwi, and I had never met him in person before, but of course we all know his story. Man, I can honestly say that sharing the space with him last night was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had as a performer. I’m blessed that I was in the presence of a man who has done such great things, and if I ever lose my way and get too full of myself, someone please remind me there are people like Eddy in this world who can be described with no other adjective than ‘amazing.’ Those of you all who aren’t familiar with his story, I urge you to check him out at eddyzheng.com and at his blog.

So in addition to Eddy, there was performances from Claremont Colleges students Mary Rose, who shared an emotional piece about New Orleans that I remember from the 2007 Summit in NYC, and lead student organizer for the event Patricia and her homegirls (sorry didn’t catch names!) doing a joint I can only assume was entitled “Phenomenal Woman” and was well-conceived and executed.

So by the time I got up to open the BRR portion of the show, the crowd was loose. They were ready to come with us wherever we went, and man it was a lot of fun. I actually prepared less for this show than I usually do, simply because the past couple weeks have been packed back-to-back-to-back with thing I had to do and I just never got a good chunk of time to sit down and go through what I planned to do. Even sound check and pre-show rituals (mine include coffee and a nap) got a little thrown off because of the hectic-ness, so by the time I hit the spotlight, I was less ready than I usually like to be.

But something about it just happened to work last night. I think the vibe of the crowd and being around so many friends both old and new just kept me feeling like no matter if I messed up on stage, that wouldn’t do anything to mess up the energy in the room. And in the end that’s what’s important, because I’ve done shows where I hit every cue the way I planned it, but the energy I try to put out doesn’t echo back to me. That can be kinda tough to deal with, but there was none of that this time.

I know the other dudes felt it too because Bao’s set was as sharp as ever, doing poems from the Nguyen series to a crowd with maybe the smallest percentage of Vietnamese people ever and he still had everyone nodding in agreement and understanding. And Kiwi just killed it. I coulda watched my man rock another hour the way he was going. Maybe it was something about being in the LA area or maybe the vibe I mentioned earlier, but Kiwi was just at home. I wish yall coulda been there.

Afterward, we had BOMB Indian food buffet, and I promptly ate way too much and then felt really gross. I am a man of extremes. And I was feeling the naan, yet I felt I had to get rice on my plate too, or else I’d be betraying the name of our tour. I feel like that contributed to my overeating. I should sometimes just try to be less stupid.

So I gotta give shouts to Patricia for putting the whole thing together, which took many many months of back-and-forth emails. Also love goes to Daren and Sefa, Yen Ling for swinging through, and the other students who I met throughout the day and evening. It’s too many mention, but I gotta mention that Joyce gave us a ride afterward, and I caught a ride from Howard, Clark, Emi, and Anita earlier in the day. Also I have to thank Doug and Dharma for helping my sleepy ass throughout Saturday. And of course Eddy Zheng.

We finish out the weekend with another BRR show tonight at UCLA. See you there. (Oh, a photo of the Pomona show will go up once I get access to some.)