An enthusiastic crowd of youngsters showed up at Nam's album release party at the Vera Project this weekend to appreciate energetic performances from The Physics, Bambu, super-talented super-group Good Medicine, and Nam himself. Though The Stranger billed this night as a Good Medicine show, every artist on the bill pointed the glory towards Nam and his "de-boo" album, Exhale. The album is as earnest, lovable and hard-working as Nam himself and plays well live,......

Nas--NAS, people--is playing Showbox SoDo this Friday, and there are three possible reasons why tickets are still available. (1) No one knows he's coming (an unintentionally secret show?); (2) Word's gotten sufficiently around about Nas' weak live performance (but still... Nas!); or (3) Everyone's blown their ticket budgets on hipster-friendly Atmosphere, playing Tuesday at the same venue (for $20 less a ticket). Needless to say, Atmosphere and Nas don't really bring out the same crowd.......