The last time I saw N.E.R.D.–the rock-infused hip-hop trio of Pharrell Williams,

The last time I saw N.E.R.D.–the rock-infused hip-hop trio of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley–they were following up J. Cole and Wale with opening duties for Jay-Z during his Blueprint 3 tour last fall at Key Arena. They had no issues commanding the space and at-capacity crowd upwards of 16,000–and if memory serves, their spectacular lighting and pummeling bass almost induced a cardiac dysrhythmia.But what if they had a much smaller space to work with, one with an estimated capacity of 300-500–say, how about, Easy Street Records? Well, we’re all going to find out on November 2 at 4 p.m. when they make a free in-store appearance at Easy Street’s Queen Anne location before going on to open for Gorillaz at, you guessed it, Key Arena. Even better, their fourth studio album Nothing is due out the same day. The planets are aligning–so who’s ready to speculate? What kind of crazy shit are they going to pull out for this one?