Without touching on whether or not Kool Keith (Doctor Octagon, Doctor Doom
Etc.) is IDM or IR(ap)M or whatever - I was able to see him last night at
the Key Club in LA.
First off the Key Club - very good venue - I wish more electronic type shows
were held at nice venues like that instead of these sweaty hot boxes they
stuff us into, read - the El Rey. The club is 3 levels sporting either
floor/stage views & two levels of balconies upstairs, with a nice lounge
downstairs away from the action. The sound was great - loud and full
without being overbearing in that damage your eardrums way, probably due to
the fact they don't put 15" cones in your face at stage level. Couple small
points - good but expensive drinks, you can save a ticketma$ter charge by
calling the club directly and you only get dinged $2 instead of $14 (ouch).
Anyway... I write stoned, onto the music.
Time has nothing but taught me that rushing to get to these shows always
proves to be fruitless so I missed the first two acts but was able to catch
the last act to go on before KK himself. The group, Natas from Oakland CA,
was the name and unprolific 80's pop-rap was there thing. Basically
shouting out how they're evil motherfuckers and all that against predictable
minimal hip-hop beats. Good for them!
Time passes and I'm entertained by a funny assortment of videos on the walls
& a $14 vodka-red-bull, which in all fairness did the job of giving me
enough courage to strike up some gerly conversation. So had I been a true
fan, I would have realized what KK looks like and recognized him at the bar,
but instead I'm left with this thought "who is the fly looking short dude".
Upstairs in shorts, a gilligan cap, a clippers shirt and a cheap Halloween
vampire cape homeboy starts busting. The only songs I (of course) recognize
is "Blue Flowers" and "Girl Let me touch you there, I wanna feel you". All
the songs where tight but a little to orchestrated for me. I felt like they
we're putting out the same ol "Hey <insert city here>, how you feeling!". I
got the feeling that there was very little free styling going on, especially
coming from some guy who I think has some really interesting albums. So in
the gap of experimentation, he just put the show out professional styles,
"Messages of soul, with a solid beat". He shared a lot of stage time with
some other rapper who was very good. Just out to promote the new album the
"Spankmaster" or some cal like that I suppose. the only other wisdom KK had
to share was this, "Fuck Retro - Advance to the Future".
Overall Score: 3/5 stars.
-pink
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