Spring Gathering review of Kottonmouth Kings and Redman and Method Man

The Kottonmouth Kings, wearing white baseball hats and shirts, performed an hour-long set at the Dr. Greenthumb and Tommy Chong’s Spring Gathering music festival and medical marijuana expo.

The group’s Orange County high-energy hip-hop and psychedelic punk rock sound was well liked by the audience Saturday night at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino.

The first song was the 2000 uptempo track “Day Dreamin’ Fazes” from their album “High Society.” The hook definitely gets stuck in your head with its chanted lyrics of “Daydreamin’ fazes, time goes by/ That’s what happens when you get high/Head’s always cloudy, words is lies/Daydreamin’ fazes, I yes I.”

The group rolled through a good mix of punk songs like 2007’s “No Escape” and hip-hop tracks like 1998’s “Bump.” They also introduced their newest member The Dirtball who performed on tracks from the Kings’ latest album “Long Live The Kottonmouth Kings” including “Rampage.”

After asking the crowd “if you believe in personal freedom and you’re proud to be a stoner” they slowed down their set with the acoustic song “Proud To Be A Stoner.” The audience loudly sang along and filled in the gaps of the song when asked.

After the Kings was the headliners Redman and Method Man. The duo, who have starred in the comedy movie “How High,” had a great chemistry together on stage.

Their first songs came from their 2009 album “Blackout! 2” and included “Errbody Scream” (but no Keith Murray), the southern sounding “City Lights” without Bun B and their single “A-Yo” before going back to the 1990’s. 

“This is like a 4/20 moment all over,” said Redman, who actually ran in front of and behind Method Man (in circles basically) while his friend performed his lyrics during the first couple of songs.

Redman performed his 1992 hit “Time 4 Sum Aksion” with its hook sampling B-Real from Cypress Hill before Method Man went back to 1994 for his sing-songy hit “Method Man” and both songs had the audiences jumping around and rapping the lyrics.

My only negative during this part of the show is I wish both hip-hop artists would perform complete songs and not just a single verse from each. Each artist reached back into their 90’s work as Method Man performed “Bring The Pain” and “All I Need” without Mary J. Blige and Redman performed “Tonight’s Da Night,” “I’ll Bee Dat” and “Da Goodness” without Busta Rhymes.

There was a couple of technical problems in the show as the set seemed to wrap up quicker than the scheduled hour (which Method Man and Redman voiced their complaints about) and Method Man was going to perform “Fall Out” from his “4:21 … The Day After” album but the DJ accidently spun Method and Redman’s “How High” remix and Redman took that as a cue to go into the song before he realized what happened and the problem was solved.

Redman also said the movie “How High 2” was being held up from Universal Pictures.

“If they would get off their a**** at Universal, you might see ‘How High 2,'” Redman said to the audience.

Despite the glitches, the duo performed a spirited version of their hit “Da Rockwilder” that had the entire crowd throwing up their hands and rapping along.

At the end, B-Real came out to massive applause and started performing his Cypress Hill hit “Hand On The Pump,” which “Da Rockwilder” samples its chorus from.