Mission Man lets loose at Donkey Coffee and Espresso last Saturday night.
From singing “Happy Birthday” to no one in particular and imitating a Papa John’s Pizza phone call, rapper Mission Man was a hit at Donkey Coffee and Espresso on Saturday night.
After about an hour onstage, Gary “Mission Man” Milholland, 36, said to the crowd of about 25 people, “You have earned another (song) — and so have I.”
“We rallied a pretty big crew to come down here and his performance was really sweet,” Kyle Dasher said.
Dasher said he has been a fan of Mission Man for a few years and has seen him perform at Casa Nueva in the past.
“It’s his tagline (that I like), there’s no ego in it, it’s just so honest,” he said. “It’s offbeat but it’s still really honest.”
Mission Man has been a rap artist since the 1990s and performed to the crowd some of his favorite raps such as “Chillin at the Papa,” which was about when Milholland was working at Papa John’s. There was even a performance of “Playin a Little Basketball,” which included vivacious dance moves and a great “basketball swoosh” gesture that got the crowd going.
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Troy Gregorino, the booking manager at Donkey Coffee, said it was one of the most enthusiastic crowds he had seen.
“I loved that he came here and gave all of himself even in this little acoustic environment,” Gregorino said. “I thought that was really cool to just see him pour everything out for such a loyal contingency of people and it was infectious.”
Milholland also said he enjoys putting honesty in his music and the energy of the crowd Saturday.
“(The songs are) so personal and honest and I put everything I have into them,” he said of his songs.
He added it was one of the best crowds he had ever had.
“They are so attentive during the song and (at) the end of every song they always cheered after every single one,” he said.
Some concertgoers even went so far to say that this show changed their lives, Gregorino said.
“He was with us and we were with him. There was this great relationship with the live audience from beginning to end and it was really cool to see that in this setting,” Gregorino said. “It was a modest but extremely rabid energized crowd. Too many people have missed that (by not coming to the show).”
The acoustic environment at Donkey Coffee also allows the artists to express themselves in an intimate space due to the private nature of the backroom, even for a rap show.
“I have performed at a couple of coffee shops before but the coffee shops I performed at always told me to turn my music down. I think Donkey’s layout back here is different,” Milholland said. “It’s music first so it allows it to actually be music and it feels like an actual venue first and then the coffee second.”
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