I’m pretty sure XV is gonna be huge.
It’s not just the green backpack gimmick (hey, everyone needs one), or the set of interests seemingly fine-tuned to the exact demographic that might get him some traction within the blogosphere (sample quote: “You find a hot girl who likes video games, you marry that girl”), or even the top-notch tracks stuffed into his latest mixtape, Zero Heroes (seriously, take a second and go listen to “That’s Just Me” on YouTube or something. Tell me that’s not radio-ready). It’s the sheer boundless energy that permeated every aspect of his show last week at The High Noon Saloon. From tip to tail, the meter read 10; the bounce in XV’s step never slowed. And, honestly, it was infectious as hell.
It would be one thing to rile up a packed house full of fans who know every word to every song on every mixtape. But that wasn’t the crowd XV was working with on Thursday. Rather, he took a ten-person deep group of mostly hipster-looking dudes that had quite clearly just downloaded his stuff earlier that night (and, hey, guilty) and turned them into a hand-waving, hook-singing, dance-happy group of super-fans. XV — after a strong opening set from UW student and Madison resident A.N.T. — raced on stage rocking a backward cap, some dark shades and, obviously, a bright green backpack. He launched into “The Kick,” which is sort of an homage to “Inception” mixed with classic motivation-rap; Comic Con meets Fort Minor, or something.
This appears to be more or less XV’s lyrical M.O. — generally positive messages dosed with a heavy drop of nerdy irony. Which, obviously, hit home with the crowd assembled at the High Noon. XV’s energy built and built (from its already considerable level) throughout the show, eventually bubbling over with his finale (which would be followed by chants of his name and an encore of “U.F.C.”), and most single-y track to date, “Awesome.” There’s a line in the chorus of that song, that, when you first hear it sounds like: “Al Edison couldn’t be this fly.” And your initial reaction is to think, what, is he combining the names of Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, and then somehow confusing that Frankenstein’s genius with the Wright Brothers? Because that’s idiotic. Then you look it up: He’s referencing Al Hedison, star of the ’50s movie “The Fly.” And that’s when it’s clear: The nerd aesthetic isn’t S.E.O. bait or some cynical marketing ploy. If XV blows up, it will be because of his energy and new connections (read: Recent record deal with Warner Bros.; help from Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar and Patrick Stump on “Zero Heroes”) but it will mostly be because he flat out deserves it.
