upon arriving into the theater the setup pretty much blew me away -
everything was covered with this netting/ivy stuff, kinda looked like
some sort of military camoflage (sp?)...the stage was shrunk down to
this little room bordered by lighting scaffolding on all sides, and
this strange netting was draped around it all making it look cool.
There were three monitors - two on stage, one in the back - and a large
screen off to the right. On either side of the stage were two huge
inflatable red and white versions of the little sphere-man from the
art of 'protection', holding a fork and knife and with stars for eyes.
cool.
show starts and the MC (daddy g) announces this dj, i can't remember his
name because it was pretty much intelligible. This man is to be come the
bane of my existance for the next four hours...POssibly one of the worst
dj's i've ever had the extreme bad luck to see. I don't know why this
man bothered with the headphones at all - his mixing style was like
this: 1)get record A and put it on. 2)dance around to record A. 3)smoke
spliff. 4)dance around to record a some more. 5) around the two-minute
or so mark on record A, he gets record B and puts it on the deck.
6)using the headphones (one ear only) he cues up record B (this takes
less than ten seconds). 7)Starting record B, he moves the crossfader
from record A to B. No beatmatching. No flow. NO problem. asshole. :) i
decided that i could have done an infinitely better job than he -
because i have half his records. he played an interesting mix of
dub-hop, roots dub and modern dub, a jungle track...i heard rockers to
rockers 'push push', sabres of paradise 'wilmot', even the chemical
brothers' 'leave home'...a few tracks sounded great but for the most
part i wished this 'dj' would get the fuck off the decks. he didn't. he
spun for maybe an hour and then (this is actually the good part) began
to do some live dub mixes of a master tape in this big boxy machine of
effects and such. very *very* cool, it was all live, and he had the
ability to echo seperate tracks (ie just the piano instead of having to
echo the whole song) and it sounded great. unfortunately this did not
make up for his dj'ing skills. so we wait and wait and wait and wait and
finally he leaves.
MC announces Talvin Singh. Great tablas player, right, but his music is
way bassy and lots of great beats - either the mix was too soft or he
just doesn't put all that much tablas in the songs - most of it was
beats and bass and electronic melodies. Bangra Dub Hop. Nice, i'd like
to hear a studio recording of it (but then i guess i did, Talvin's
performance consisted of him and his tablas overtop backing tapes)....
Talvin leaves to be replaced by....mr dodgy 'dj'. *argh* - the audience
as a collective screams, so as not to be inundated with his trainwreck
fucked up 'mixing' anymore. he plays for too long again. *FINALLY*
massive come on....
first track is 'safe from harm'...on a dark stage, mushroom comes out
and , with white light emanating from behind him, holds two record
aloft over his head like trophies. this part is *WICKED*. he slaps the
vinyl down and starts to scratch a bit...ripping shit up and just when
you think he's going to launch into this huge performance, he drops the
beat. *damn* that beat never sounded so good. the vocalist (dunno who)
sings the track great. the monitors play fucking *amazing* computer
animations featuring the 'fire hazard' logo and the sphere-man (if
you've visited Massive's web site you've seen like ten seconds of this)
the lights, the aminations, the music all combine amazingly. They run
through a bunch of stuff not limited to PRotection...i heard
'daydreaming', 'eurochild', 'karmacoma', 'five man army', 'hymn of the
big wheel' (horace andy on tour with them providing the vocals - what a
man) umm...i don't remember hearing 'unfinished sympathy' and i had
talked to Daddy G earlier who mentioned that since they didn't have
Tracy Thorn with them they wouldn't be doing 'protection'. they didn't. :)
Another track from 'protection' which i can't remember...no
'sly'...mushroom is a fucking wicked dj - cutting shit up, mixing and
scratching....he was awesome. 3D is the ultimate mellow MC... They end
the first set with 'Light My Fire' which, despite the awfulness of the
version on 'protection', is totally totally awesome. mushroom keeps
mixing crowd noises atop of everything making me feel like i'm at a
rave, and there are these spots atop the lighting rig, right above the
suspended decks - everytime those lights go on i feel like i'm at some
old-school hip hop party in like '82. Horace sings, Daddy G mc's, and
mushroom cuts shit up...wicked.
This show was billed as 'massive attack sound system' and upon leaving
i overheard people bitching that 'everything was taped' (which it
wasn't, all the beats and most of the songs were played on vinyl with
added live basslines, keyboards, effects and vocals). *this* is what a
sound system is, its the spirit, it's massive attack capturing the
sound system spirit and taking it on tour. and it works. I had a great
time (aside from mr asshole dj.). Unfortunately this show ran four
hours on a weeknight (plus i might have enjoyed the opening acts better
if i had been blunted) and i left exhausted. on a Friday or Saturday
night this might have been alot better for me, but as i said, i had a
good time.
i'm sorry this is so scatterbrained. i'm really really tired. :)
::Michel.Battaglia::::San.Francisco:California:::::mike@organic.com:
::mikebee@freenet.scri.fsu.edu::::http://organic.com/~mike::::::::::