The bass goes BOOOM.
Yes!
This weekend I saw one of my favorite Hip Hop DJs ever live with my lil bro in Madison. I gotta say it was way more insanely amazing than I could have ever expected. This is probably the second loudest show I have ever seen, the bass was SO loud that you could feel it in your rib cage. It was an all ages crowd, and there were a lot of goofy kids dancing up front to some really wack scratch nerds that were opening for DJ Shadow. They were having fun though and I was utterly thrilled to be there so I didn't hate on em too much. I did laugh a lot though especially when you are looking at some lil kid air scratching to every "fresh" they hear. Finally, after the openers cleared the stage I was in prime position with my little brother. Smashed up against the front and center of the stage for the best view. I wanted so bad to see what he was mixing but I was too low to see anything he dropped. The crowd, although fairly young and clueless, was pumped up. DJ Shadow was feeling the love when he stepped out and introduced his set.
Then he explained the set was something quite different than we might expect, and completely unique to that night as he was "going in new directions" with this tour he was on. He added "This is all live, no laptops, no hard drives, just a foot pedal looper and records and his drum pads." I got even happier when he said that which I didn't think was possible.
Then right off the bat he slammed on a old-ass techno record that sounded amazing and not surprisingly something I never heard before. The bass started to slowly build throughout his set as he started to mix in old 909 beats, some drum and bass and jungle that would knock your socks off, amongst a wide variety of music styles that somehow all blended together perfectly. Watching him mix was like witnessing a perfectly honed DJ tweak every single high and low on his mixer with precision. He wasn't afraid to experiment by adding "Shai - If I Ever Fall In Love Again" over a crazy dubstep build. Occasionally he'd throw in some original records he sampled for Entroducing and he accompanied them buy live drumming on his drum kit at his right hand. I was blown away as to how good of a drummer he was keeping perfect time with the music rotating. The place was going absolutely insane for his set. The beats and people's feet were shaking the entire building. The kids were going ballistic. And in hindsight, I'm pretty sure I sat there almost motionless, just sucking it all in, studying it. I moved as best as I can when the bass was pumping, but I can't dance and I didn't wanna, I just wanted to remember every moment. In a nutshell, it was an inventive and flawless set. The time I had there will be burnt into my memory as the best live DJ set I've ever seen.
At the end of the show the place cleared out except for me and a couple of other kids that wanted their photo with Shadow. I watched as giddy school girls begged him to get on stage and pose for a picture and he reluctantly said "Sure, come on up" Then I listened as the dumb broad was like "What's your name again?" to DJ Shadow. He nicely replied "My name's Josh." as he posed with this teen. I was sick of that bullshit so I interjected, "Hey, Josh, I know your name. Can I get your autograph?" He smiled and said yes, shook my hand and signed the only thing I had on me at the time which was the back of my phone case. I wish I would have told him I was rchecka, they guy who bought all his records at his online store, the guy who had to have everything with his name on it because I considered him one of the true great DJs still keeping it real. But all I could muster in my stupor was "My name's Joe." as he signed my phone. Oh well, at least I got to shake his hand and tell him it was a great set. His autograph on my periodic table of Hip Hop elements phone case is already wearing off, but whatever, I'll remember that forever regardless.
I'm kind of blown away by the whole experience. I'm surprised on how when this tour started he was kicked off stage by a booing audience not ready to hear his unlikely set. They were wrong to put on their ear blinders, because this was an amazing experience.
Me and my lil brother had to leave our car in a garage downtown in madison and get a taxi ride back because we were drinking top notch Wisconsin brews, and
something called sweet diesel that put us on cloud nine. It took me 2 days to recover from the night but it was well worth it. I'll definitely be checking for his next set when he comes my way again.
“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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