Aesop Rock doesn't dance and he's never been a drinker, so the only way to get him into a club is if you pay him.
"It's just sensory overload, and I find it impossible to enjoy myself," the rapper wrote in an email. "I guess that sounds weird, maybe because I play loud music in crowded rooms, but it's different when you're on stage."
That sort of dissonance is nothing new for Ian Bavitz, better known as Aesop Rock and best known for doing things his own way on the outskirts of indie hip-hop. He and MURS, another undergrounder and outsider within the genre, perform at the Anchor Pub Thursday night. Both men, known for their lyric-driven styles, are back in town after separate and successful solo shows last year.
Aesop played the Wendy Williamson Auditorium last April to a nearly sold-out house.
"Aesop was awesome," said UAA Concert Board coordinator Zac Clark. "The Williamson can be difficult. He did a great job of getting people up out of their seats."
Aesop agreed about the Williamson's difficulty. "It will be better," he said of the upcoming show at The Anchor Pub. "It's better to have some uninhibited intimacy with the show goers, and I hope that is able to happen a little more this time."
MURS played two club shows in Anchorage last June, an all-ages one at Club Millennium and another at The Anchor Pub, which was at capacity, according to Heather Prunty of Synapse Productions. Now with Aesop and MURS both doing sets, it shouldn't be a surprise if the show sells out.
But at heart, both MURS and Aesop Rock are collaborators. MURS told the Daily News last year that he was more comfortable when he found a good producer so he could focus solely on rapping. Aesop, comfortable in both spheres, is currently working with everyone from the rock-oriented Dirty Ghosts to hip-hoppers MURS and DJ Big Wis to lo-fi, acoustic artist Kimya Dawson of "Juno" soundtrack fame.
"Solo records are exhausting mentally and emotionally. And for a lot of years I was just doing solo records one after the other," Aesop said.
Minus the seating and plus Aesop's longtime friend and collaborator, MURS, this Anchorage show is another example of the rapper's newfound interest in sharing the load.
"Just in the past couple years have I really been a part of some group projects that have allowed some of that pressure to subside so I can discover the fun part of making music again."
To read the full interview transcript with Aesop Rock, visit the Play blog at adn.com/playblog.
By Paul Flahive
Daily News correspondent