In the “things that make you go 'hmm'” department: the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana is advertising Outkast as performing at their venue on July 17. (Click on the flier to see a bigger version.) Hmm.
Yes, the same Outkast that gave us “Ms. Jackson,” “Hey Ya,” “The Whole World,” etc. etc. etc. The same Outkast that hasn't toured or performed together as a duo in years. Surprising, then, that they would pick the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, of all places, to make a return, huh? And that it would be in a show where they're second-billed, under their frequent collaborator, Sleepy Brown?
Clearly, it's not going to be an Andre 3000 and Big Boi reunion on July 17 at the Galaxy. I e-mailed Lila Sadeghi, marketing manager at the Galaxy, to try and find out some more info. She wrote back, “Yes it will be Sleepy and I can not name the other member of Outkast that will be doing the performance with Sleepy for the Outkast set.” Well, phrased like that, it sounds like it could be anyone involved with Outkast, like, a keyboard player or something. So I wrote back, specifically asking–“You're saying one of the two members of Outkast will be there, though?” She replied: “For 100% sure.”
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Given that Sleepy Brown's most famous Outkast collaboration is “The Way You Move,” the first single from Big Boi's Speakerboxxx half of the Speakerboxxx/Love Below
2003 double-album (a song mentioned on the flier), it's as good a bet
as any that if one of the two guys are indeed going to be there, it's
got to be Big Boi, who also worked with Sleepy Brown on the singer's
2006 Mr. Brown album.
This raises some interesting PR
questions–clearly, Outkast is the collective duo of Big Boi and Andre
3000. Is it really fair to advertise Outkast as appearing when you
can't deliver on both of them, and you won't announce which member is
actually performing? (Especially when post-“Hey Ya,” Andre 3000 is
clearly the more popular one.) Would you advertise the Indigo Girls
when you could only deliver Emily Sailers? Dubious.
