Battle of the beats

I still had the flyer from a dimly remembered night of drinking. It was for an Aug. 17 show at the Zephyr Lounge. However, rather than a show featuring the usual gang of rock ‘n’ roll refugees who call Reno home, this show featured an MC battle, with MCs laying down lyrics to the beats of DJs like DJ Saurus, The PostmOn, Verbal Kint, Throbbing Ambition, The Four Deuce Hustlas and Emo Nixon. The flyer said 8 p.m.

So I showed up at 8:30 p.m. when there were more ashtrays in the place than people. (I forgot—no one in Reno goes out until after 9 p.m.) At nine, the show’s ringleader, Tonya Flint, brought up the first act.

Emo Nixon, a one-man/one-guitar punk rock act, keeps the torch of the ‘80s burning bright. Nixon, new to the Reno music scene, had a fun but less-than-seamless act. After a heckler left, Nixon played on, into an encore of two songs for his friends and new fans.

After a mild wait and more people, Throbbing Ambition came onto the stage. This duo gets more entertaining each time I see them. The two prefer to remain known only as “Throbbing” and “Ambition,” respectively. Layered guitar and passionate monologues, two-part spoken show tunes and brimming angst define Throbbing Ambition’s style.

Flint referred to what happened next as “technical difficulties.” DJ Saurus had cancelled in advance, due to a family crisis; The Four Deuce Hustlas hadn’t shown up; TJ of Verbal Kint was MIA and only three people had decided to enter the rest of the MC battle. There was a long wait before the next act, at which time most people left. Flint was thinking of simply opening the mic up to freestylers.

But then, right as Flint was getting ready to pull the plug, six amateur rappers on vacation from California showed up, looking to sign up.

The show was on, and this was not the usual Zephyr show. Although he’s primarily a reggae DJ, The PostmOn, aka Anthony Postman, spun hip-hop beats with CDs he’d borrowed from Teak, a Carson DJ. The nine contestants spun two at a time, with the winner of each MC battle determined by applause.

While many of the MCs used profanity (and not much else) in their lyrics, there were some really good rappers laying down lyrics to the beats of The PostmOn, like Daniel Pavlin, 24, of Santa Rosa, Calif.

“We got to go out there and goof off, which you can’t really do at a lot of places,” Pavlin said after the show. “It was a really good time.”

The night was just going to be a freestyle competition, but when one MC in the audience started heckling the MC on stage, the battle was on. MCs started “slamming” one another, dueling with words and heating up the competition. Soon the field of verbal warriors was narrowed down to Pavlin and two brothers from Los Angeles: Cognac and Sleepy. Cognac, 17, won the competition in the final round. Sleepy had nothing but praise for his younger brother.

“Hey, I taught him everything he knows how to say,” Sleepy said.

After the battle, The PostmOn brought out his own CDs and spun reggae beats into the wee hours of the morning. While it started slow, the night got everyone grooving.

The PostmOn summed it up.

“It was really good seeing everyone come out to this," he said. "I’ve never seen anything like that here before."