In light of the "dj shadow is horrible live" thread, I thought I'd toss my
opinion in (since it's pretty far to the contrary...)
quoted 4 lines Well tonight I drove for about 5 hours round trip just to see DJ Shadow
> Well tonight I drove for about 5 hours round trip just to see DJ Shadow
> play live in Cincinatti, Ohio. And before you start ragging on me for
> liking him, or say something along the lines of "I could have told you =
> he would suck", hear me out.
I too drove long distances last weekend to see DJ Shadow (well, I spun at
a small party, too, but seeing Shadow was the main focus). I came around
16 hours round trip, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Minneapolis.
Friday while in Minneapolis, my small crew and I saw that Shadow would
be performing in-store at Let It Be record store the next day. Chalked it
up as a must-do, considering that he invited those attending to each bring
one piece of vinyl, which he'd mix into his set.
The next day, we went back to Let It Be, and saw the masses forming. Each
of us gave our record to the person collecting them. I brought "Bug in the
Bassbin" by Innerzone Orchestra, my friend brought a dub record, and his
girlfriend brought my copy of Photek's "Natural Born Killers" ep on
Metalheadz. Shadow began his set by saying something to the effect of "Hi,
I'm Josh. This is my fourth-ever in-store performance", and then went on
to explain how he thought it'd be great to, instead of just playing
records out of his own box, he'd have people bring their own.
Lemme just say that this was a pretty damn cool idea. He had everything
from Muzak records to Tangerine Dream (not too far off the first...) to
old Run-DMC to Photek. He actually played "Consciousness" of the Photek
record (at 45rpm!). One of the highlights for me was seeing him drop in a
sample of some kid's record saying "Let's wait here for the storm to blow
over", and then cutting it back to the beat in perfect time (from a record
he'd just been handed).
So the in-store was really cool. Next, on to the show:
quoted 4 lines I drove down for 5 hours, suffered through some horrid hip hop act, and
> I drove down for 5 hours, suffered through some horrid hip hop act, and
> then listened to Jeru the Damaja do his thing. Jeru was excellent minus
> his whole anti-asian comments and a few stupid gangsta like moments of
> juvenile crap - other than that, he put on a fun live show.
This was almost exactly opposite from my experience. In Minneapolis,
Shadow was slated to play solo first, then appear with the two MCs he
works with, Lyrics Born and Lateef, collectively known as Latyrx. Then
Jeru, then Shadow solo again.
When we got there, Shadow was spinning behind Latyrx, laying down the
beats and putting some scratches in. I personally thought Latyrx was
pretty good - they were _into_ performing for this crowd, even though they
were some thousand-odd miles from California. Lyrics Born even mentioned
he'd stay in Minneapolis if he could, they were that excited to play for
the crowd. It really showed in their performance; they were enthusiastic,
they played off each other's energy, and they didn't bog down with
bullshit crowd participation/baiting, the way Jeru did...
Jeru, in my opinion, was on some bullshit. He came out and did his show,
but *every single verse*, it seemed, he'd stop everything and threaten
the crowd by saying he'd leave if everybody didn't get hyped. By the end
of the night, I was ready for him to leave looong before he did. Don't get
me wrong, because I love hip-hop. I understand crowd participation, and
crowd involvement. But berating an audience isn't the way to do it. This
was especially clear when contrasted with Latyrx, a young, hungry group
eager to do their thing, have a good time, and put on a good performance.
quoted 8 lines The DJ Shadow came on, first they never turned the lights down for him, so
> The DJ Shadow came on, first they never turned the lights down for him, so
> it was like watching him in a gym. Secondly, and this is the part I am =
> very angry about, he played for 15 minutes. THAT'S IT. I drove for hours, =
> paid my money to see THAT. I absolutely couldn't believe it. We were given =
> no explanation, and shadow just walked off the stage. Never played =
> "What does your soul look like", etc. Nothing. Total 15 minutes =3D =
> $15 ticket, $20 gas, and $15 or so money I could have made working =
> tonight. $50 to see him play one or two songs and leave.
I admit to being disappointed about the short closing set myself. But you
have to realize that, if it was anything like the Minn. date, he'd done an
instore, done a solo performance and backed his two MCs BEFORE you even
saw him at the end. I was kicking myself for not getting to the venue
sooner so I could have seen his solo performance at the beginning, but I
was pretty well consoled by the absolutely beautiful music Shadow was
playing during his 20-25 minute closing set.
Shadow had both his turntables and some studio gear with him, and seemed
to be using both. I think he started his set off record, and then mixed in
some sample-based stuff off his gear. He played basically all album tracks
from "Endtroducing..." and did a lot of mixing stuff over/with/around the
tracks coming from whatever source. His beats sounded soooo good on a loud
PA, and he also was obviously very into his performance. He actually broke
it down in his set to 3 or 4 minutes of just strings and pads, no beats,
in a _club_, mind you, before finally bring a beat in. I watched his set
and was inspired.
This man creates mood like nobody's business. During "Midnight in a
perfect world", you could see that it was midnight in that club. His stuff
was just really, really good.
quoted 4 lines Needless to say I don't ever plan on buying DJ Shadow or Mo Wax again
> Needless to say I don't ever plan on buying DJ Shadow or Mo Wax again
> if this is the respect they have for their fans. And to think, 15 =
> minutes from my house Dego from Reinforced was playing live. Cheaper, =
> closer, and probably much much better.
Well, sorry you didn't like it. If I had the opportunity to see Dego live
15 minutes from me I would have probably stayed home too, but I would
missed a really inspirational show, in my opinion. You really shouldn't
blame Mo'Wax or Shadow, though. As far as I know, the tour is organized by
London/FFRR, the US distributors of both Mo'Wax (shadow) and Payday
(Jeru). It was their decision to organize things that way, I think, and
Mo'Wax or Shadow probably had no decision in how it was set up. Don't
short yourself on good music because of one bad experience.
Peace,
Bill / dj marathon
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