BY ROXANA HADADI

Compare Aesop Rock's Aug. 20 show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., to his concert there last September, and, at first glance, the two may not seem all that different. Fellow Definitive Jux rapper Rob Sonic was at both, as was DJ Big Wiz and opener Yak Ballz. Underground rap was out in full force - wordy lyrics, New York pride and all - and the packed crowd was beside itself the entire time, screaming along with every song like some kind of new hip-hop gospel.

Despite all the revelry, it was pretty obvious that the whole September 2007 affair was very much a promotion of None Shall Pass, Aesop's most recent album; practically all of the songs he performed came from that release, and only a few songs from previous works - such as "Daylight," from the 2002 EP of the same name - came out to play. But this time around - a year removed from the album and touring just for the fun of it - Aesop dealt a more even hand, treating the crowd to a mix of songs from last year's None Shall Pass, 2005's Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives, 2002's Daylight, 2001's Labor Days and 2000's Float.

But before Aesop hit the stage at 10:15 p.m. (ironically, the same time as September's show), openers Grayskul (a hip-hop duo from Seattle) and Yak Ballz entertained the audience. Grayskul went on stage at 8:15 p.m. and, despite numerous mic problems, soldiered through their 40-minute set. Duo Onry Ozzborn and JFK performed a number of tracks from their latest album, Bloody Radio, including the title track and their latest single, "Missing." Though the song lost some of its creepy effect without former Pretty Girls Make Graves singer Andrea Zollo, who provides guest vocals, "Missing" retained its overall spine-tingling feel and received the most reaction from the somewhat ambivalent audience.

(Yak Ballz)

Crowd reaction took a definite upswing, though, with the arrival of Yak Ballz. Queens' little rapper that could (who, along with Aesop, is a member of underground hip-hop supergroup The Weathermen), Yak Ballz barely bantered with the audience, instead choosing to rip straight through his set with little crowd interaction. Nevertheless, "Get Yours" and its sing-a-long chorus grabbed listeners early, and "Blind Faith" and "Hello Eyes" kept them chanting along.

The already energetic Yak Ballz got even more dynamic - teetering right on the edge of the stage, leaping off speakers and skipping around - during "Fire in the Sky," and finished off the song by shrugging off one particularly zealous fangirl who kept pointing out his unzipped fly. But despite his up-tempo performance, Yak Ballz's failure to play "Scifentology" - the particularly dark, gritty, machine gun-sampling track from 2006's mixtape of the same name - put a damper on the whole set. Now that's something he did that we could never believe.

But when Aesop Rock took the stage shortly after 10 p.m., both Grayskul's and Yak Ballz's less-than-perfect performances paled even further in comparison. Launching right into "Keep of the Lawn" from None Shall Pass, Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic sauntered around the stage, keeping fans yelling with their back-and-forth chorus of "How alive? Too alive!" Next came crowd favorite "Coffee," a track which Aesop used as a closer at both the 9:30 Club and Ottobar shows last year.

(Rob Sonic)

Though The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle wasn't there to accompany Aesop on the track - the only time the two have performed the song together was at last year's Ottobar show, a night when both musicians had separate concerts in Baltimore - the rapper mixed up the chorus, instead choosing to chant, in spelled out form, the phrase "take no prisoners," which appears at the end of the album version of the song. While the lack of Darnielle changed the song's composition, the crowd didn't seem to mind too much, and was pleasantly surprised to hear "Coffee" so early on.

A few more songs - including None Shall Pass's "Catacomb Kids" and The Next Big Thing's "The One That Got Away" - followed before Aesop took a break to talk to the audience and tell them what was so special about this performance in Washington, D.C.: His parents were in attendance.

"Every time I say a curse onstage, I see my mother's face in the crowd," Aesop sheepishly said, before switching gears and interviewing crowd members about their jobs. After describing one stint of his own (where he worked in a factory making buttons), Aesop launched into "Labor," the classic opener from Labor Days. More oldies came in the form of "Big Bang" from Float; a combined performance of "Night Light" - the pessimistic, destruction-loving track from the Daylight EP - and "Daylight" itself; and "Fast Cars," whose music video was projected on a massive screen behind Aesop.

Later in the night, fans were treated to separate freestyle sessions from both Aesop and DJ Big Whiz; some musings from Aesop over whether his parents were enjoying themselves ("Motherfuckers are wilin' ... My mom and dad are probly wilin'. Or they're sitting, doing a crossword puzzle, whatever."); and a sped-up version of the lilting, bass-pumping "None Shall Pass" that got everyone dancing and screaming themselves hoarse.

Though "None Shall Pass" served as the concert's closer (Aesop: "We came in peace, we leave in peace. Rest in peace, we out."), barely a minute passed before Aesop, Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz came back onstage for an encore, with Aesop smirking, "We already did ‘Daylight,' so joke's on you." But amidst screams of requests, the three jumped into "No Regrets," the favorite from Labor Days about little Lucy and her little dream. Oh, Aesop - on Wednesday night, "No Regrets" seemed quite apt.

[Photos Credit: Adam Fried]