review--l.a. ninja show

Tony Reid (t-bird@salata.com)
15 Feb 97 15:17:04 -0800


hey folks!

now that i've started my day, i figgered i'd let y'all know what i thought
about the ninja show thursday nite!

let me say 1st off that i'm really glad i went! there was kool stuff that
happened that i'm really glad i experienced... but there was some other stuff

that bugged me.

*the music*

kid koala... wow!! a friend of mine mentioned that his set must be somewhat
rehearsed (i did see him grab a stack of jacket-less records right before he
went on), but i still dug it! it was real trick oriented, but the beats were
still fat, and generally you could dance to what he was doing--unlike some of
battle stuff i've heard. another friend of mine that i'm turning on to
dj/dance culture bought his tape and loves it. she took it to her office and
played it there (she works at a conservative religious university) and it
really went over!! she took it mainly to fuck w/their heads "i went to a
really nice concert last night, this is a tape of one of the performers...",
but they dug it!

one of the guys from the herbalizer (where was the other one?) played some
really cool tracks. it became really obvious (if you didn't already know)
that
these guys are all really hiphop djs--they all did tricks (i.e. crazy
scratching, transforming and other stuff i can't quite name...), and many of
them dropped old skool tracks (hiphop and otherwise). it took him a while to
warm up (some of his initial mixes & blends were a little off...) but once he
got warmed up, it was in the pocket! the other thing was that following kid
koala is a really hard thing to do. when koala finished his set, there was a
roar from the audience--not to be confused w/a mere cheer--and then the cat
from herbalizer went on.

i can say pretty much the same thing about the guy from dj food (was it kev
or
pc?). more fat tracks & cool tricks, but i think there was more out there
blends...

after the food set koala came up and joined in for some 2x4 action. they
went
at it for a while hiphop style (i.e. dj 1=grooves dj2=tricks) and then the
herbalizer dj jumped in on deck #5 adding more tricks--koala would go back &
forth between layering additional beats and doing tricks.

the openers i've saved for later because i wasn't as impressed by them.

raymond roker from urb opened up w/a d&b set. he seemed to be playing some
nice stuff, but why would you have a d&b set right before dj vadim who plays
ill trip/downbeat shit? it just seemed really out of place--the ninja guys
did as much jungle as they do on their albums (only a little bit), so why
have
a jungle dj open instead of someone more in the vibe (e.g. dj anna, todd
roberts, *me* <grin>)?

dj vadim--maybe i just don't get him... he had this "space gun" effect that
he was really fond of. it started to annoy me after the 3rd time he used it.

i really felt that he was being unnecessarily abstract w/his weird non-groove
shit over a beat. he finally ended up playing some more groove oriented
stuff
later in his set, but it was really only headnod shit--i came to dance.
there
was also some samples he would run that seemed too clever for their own good.
it would have been easier to deal w/him at an art opening or something that's

designed more for you to soak up the sounds, but at this gig it caused people
to just stand there and listen. there were the nodders but i had a hard time
believing most of them were *really* getting it, they seemed to be doing it
because that's what was expected. my friend was really beefing on vadim's
set
and i was going to try to defend it--until i realized *i* didn't really like
it either...

the last beef that i have about the music deals w/herbalizer & dj food. why
was only 1 dj there from each of those groups? it was like they tried to
deal
on our level of understanding (w/the exception for vadim--props for having
the
balls to play shit people might not get) instead of "this is what we do, dig
it
or don't." i was really looking forward to hearing both groups do 2x4 in the
context of their own group, not merely 3 djs from different crews jamming. i
have a friend who went to stealth at the blue note, and he was really
dissappointed (but not surprised) by the change for the l.a. show. i was
really hoping for something mindblowing in terms of conception in djing, not
merely technique.

*the venue*

the venue was the troubador which *sucked*! 1st off the security guards (the

1st schmucks you have to deal w/unless you're on the guest list--someone i
know
was on the list and didn't get in because they couldn't find his name) are
all
thugs. do we really have to frisk everyone anymore? any knucklehead who's
gonna bring a weapon probably isn't gonna go see a show like ninja, it's a
little too mental. i know, i know, the venue doesn't know that, but they
should find out more about the act's "vibe" in addition to what kind of draw
they have. i was instructed quite sternly not to flyer the show (or risk
losing all my flyers), and then i noticed everyone else flyering the joint
--like we would really be threatening their business at a club that is
generally known for booking local rock* bands! in general the security
seemed
to be rude in all of their dealings w/the crowd. second, the sound was
screwed... the best place to listen was in the bar lounge before you go into

the big room (where the acts are). they have video monitors to show the acts

performing--an unexpected, nice touch--and the sound quality & levels are a
lot more pleasant. there was a ubiquitous hum throughout the show that would

become more pronounced at the beginning and end of sets, and sometimes in the

middle. the bass was out of control, in a bad way--the bar in the big room
was underneath a seating area upstairs and the sound was *really* fucked
there,
we went to the lounge during vadim's set partially because of the ill
vibrations from the low ceiling. it was really hard to find a good spot in
the room, sonically. they should really have an acoustic engineer come in
and
"fix" the room. speaking of the room, the venue is also really unappealing
visually--it looks really slapped together. you can practically see the
contempt for the patrons by the mere look of the place. also, why do they
have
tap beer in the lounge and strictly bottled beer in the big room? why have
tap beer at all, if it's not availible in the room where you should be
selling
the most...

hopefully one of the ninja people will see this and maybe tell me/us why this

venue was picked... i really want to support the music, but i can't stand
this
venue and it's gonna be hard to get me to go there again.

anyway, i think that's enough for now...

t-bird

... stereotypes dj crew-providin' the vibes 310 236 0141