From --s-tephen pozgay Sent Fri, Oct 15th 1999, 23:53
From --s-tephen pozgay Sent Fri, Oct 15th 1999, 23:53
i'm not on the idm list (too much damn email already!), but a friend on it suggested i repost this review for y'all. i know there was already one other review, but different viewpoints are not always bad. sorry if there are some of you who consider this spam...it seems on-topic to me, correct? so tonight i ended off my weekend (i have wed and thurs off every week) by checking out a show at this great venue called the Crystal Ballroom. it really used to be a ballroom, and is this huge hall with a balcony at one end and a stage at one corner of the other end. it also has this killer floor that is somehow suspended, or it floats, or something. at any rate, it made for a great dance floor. and with a lineup like this one, and a sold-out show (capacity prolly around 1250 - 1500), you can bet that floor was bouncing. i don't know how they all got on the same amazing bill together, but tonight i have just seen DJ Die (w/Dynamite MC) open, Breakbeat Era perform live, Roni Size (w/Dynamite MC) rip it UP, DJ Shadow spin and trick out his own shit (from his first record to stuff that is yet unreleased), and DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist pull some rare groove 45s out of the vaults and go head to head. WOW! so the ticket says Breakbeat Era, Roni Size, DJ Die, Dynamite MC & DJ Shadow meets Cut Chemist. so i was figuring that DJ Shadow/Cut Chem. would be opening up. bzzz. wrong. i get there at 9:30 and Die is already spinning. he played some jump up, some slightly dark drum n bass, and mostly stuff to get the crowd warmed up, which must have been an unusual situation for him. but he played well, and Dynamite MC added some to the set, but served more as a crowd exciter this time round than anything. then Breakbeat Era jumps on stage and start playing. this was the set that i was most looking forward to (because i had no idea that Roni Size was spinning at all that night). I'd heard some of the cuts from the Ultra Obscene album, which i'd naturally recommend, but i was mainly interested because it was a live band playing straight up drum n bass. drummer was spot on all set, and the bassist had some pretty good lines. there was a keyboard/sampler guy too, and then Leonie the vocalist. evidently during the songwriting process, she would write the lyrics and then approach Die/Roni Size with the idea and they would arrange the sounds. so its not the normal drumnbass with vocals. this is more like pop stuff, or at least (if comparing ideas/sounds) somewhat like Bjork. Leonie has a great voice that came off ok in concert, but she could use a few lessons in divadom...that is, how to act when not singing, how to interact with the audience, etc. but the players were solid, and made the people dance, which i think must've been hard because the crowd was not at all familiar with the group's work. but they reacted favorably, and the group seemed to understand that they were touring to get their name out, not touring because they were already well known. which was a nice attitude to feel. so next comes part threee, my favorite part absolutely hands down. roni size djing, with dynamite mc on the mic. as dynamite kept saying, "we're gonna do 500 toons, all types, full circle, 360, fast and furious." and it was true. roni size really mixed it up! from jump up to dark step to afro funk to straight up drum n bass to some of his own unique blend of jazzy dnb, he kept the crowd really moving hard and the records coming and coming. his mixing skills are quite good, as shown by the closing extended on the fly remix of his classic Brown Paper Bag. but during the set he was able to move the crowd up and down the peaks and valleys, not letting the slack drop even when the beats stopped for a rewind. it was, again, nice to see dynamite mc and roni size giving such a great performance with what seemed to be a great attitude about being there. no doubt they are used to bigger venues, later set times, and more names on the bill, but they really gave portland their all, and portland responded favorably. made me anxious to dj just that much more! so i was wiped out after that, and stood by the side, since i couldn't dance much more. but i'm sure my space was filled in quickly. DJ Shadow took the stage, gave up props for the rest of the bill, and talked about what was going to happen. he would spin his own shit for a while...about 45min it turned out...then Cut Chemist would come up and they would go at it for a while, back to back on old rare groove 45s. he said that this was only the 4th time they had played this set out, and would probably be one of the last. it is released on a cd called Brainfreeze, but the cd is going to be hard to come by because they can't "legally" release it due to copyright yadda yadda and whatnot. but they were there for sale, only ten buck-a-roos. so Shadow spun and tricked out his records, playing stuff from all over his catalog, including crowd pleasers The Number Song, Midnight in a Perfect World, and What Does Your Soul Look Like. his skills are very nice indeed. he got great reaction from the crowd, and everyone danced quite a bit. then Cut Chemist took his place at the decks beside Shadow, and they got rolling with the 45s. i must admit that while they are both quite handy with the faders and platters, and the music was good and fun and all, this set was somewhat of a disappointment for me. maybe i just wasn't able to appreciate how rare the stuff was, or how hard it is to mix 45s. good to experience this, but it just didn't keep me around. i left about 2:00/2:30, because i was tired and have to be at work tomorrow. a few more things before i sign off. the crowd was really great. very nice vibe, where there was potential for there to be a very bad vibe due to all the scenesters and jerky boys who pushed their way around liek they have the right to make others feel like crap/etc. maybe i thought it was a good crowd though because i stayed mostly in the front with the folks that really wanted to be there/have fun/dance all night. the other thing that made it good was the lighting and the projections. they had two huge whitesheet screens on either side of the stage that were used for video projections. for the better part of the evening, they projected live video from the stage, digitally effected and whatnot. it was great during shadow and cut chemist's set to see their hands and kind of figure out for myself what movement was corresponding to what sound. so much to learn for me. so, that's it. i hope you all have enjoyed reading this. i certainly enjoyed typing it and seeing the show that inspired it... lemme know if you have any comments...i'd love to hear them! --s-tephen | (suppoz) members.tripod.com/suppoz ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com