Damn! Who was in the hosue down at the Showbox last night? If you weren't shame on you - well not completly as it was sold out so to all you late comers, sorry!

After some fun at the door, and a great manuver to pull off prime parking I walked in seeing (and hearing) N.E.R.D. in complete control. Immediately the two drum kits become apparent and, in spite of the terrible sound system, they tore it down with on point solos and continous hard knockin' beats!

Arriving just in time for Pharrel to invite all the ladies onto stage before launching into their hit "Everybody Nose" - these girls may not have been in line to the bathroom, but I bet some of 'em bypassed the line onto Pharrels bus.

For someone who isn't much of a fan (I haven't copped a record since In Search Of...) I was completly entertained and ready to have a ball - guess I gotta work on getting to shows earlier? If the closing of their set was any indication, don't pass up another chance to see N.E.R.D..

During the set I found myself wondering how this pairing happened? I mean, yeah Common and Pharrel have worked together in the past and from the sound of things they are cooking up some serious heat for the new joint coming soon(ish?). But muscially, and in pretty much every other respect, they are about as dissimilar two groups can be.

But it doesn't matter because Common killed it - and yes Pharrel came out too.

Backed by a drummer and keyboardist along with DJ W on the serato (Anyone notice the gold rope dude was rocking Eric B & Rakim style?) Common came out ready to rock Seattle like it should be done.

Running through an assortment of tracks mainly from the Kanye era, but pulling a few classics out of retirement as well, you know he had to rock "Come Close" while Pharrel sung some back up vocals and chatted up a chick on stage before launching into a version of "Go!" so live I swear it was a different song!

While Common seems to hold back performing much from the Like Water For Choclate era (I can't see why, it's his best period) he had to hit us off with the classic "I Used to Love H.E.R." and while this was all I wanted to see, the beat just couldn't translate as performed by the band and what should have been the livest moment of the night ended up getting cut short to only one verse.

But the band made up for this lackluster performance by hitting it's stride when Common launched into "Southside" and just had you praying Kanye was gonna jump out from behind the stage, but we are still in Seattle so don't worry you didn't miss an intimate Glow in the Dark performance (Swerve you are so right - def should of hit that show up!).

As the night began to wrap up Pharrel got his shine on even more as they dove into the new cuts and Common even blessed us with some rhymes over the viscious Primo beat "NY State of Mind" shouting out "It's a Seattle state of mind" which just got the crowd in a frenzy - to bad I'm still trippin' off Nas set at Rock the Bells.

After all was said and done the people poured out of the Sodo Box to a cloud of asphalt vapors and road workers ready to take on some drunk Hip Hop kids, but all was well and everyone was happy, Common delivered a proper set for someone who has been gone from the 206 for far to long.