DJ Shadow: Wanker

I’m a big DJ Shadow fan. Have been for a long time. Entroducing is without a doubt the finest instrumental hip-hop album ever. ‘You Can’t Go Home Again’ is one of about four songs I’m able to listen to on repeat over and over again. I love the guy as a musician but damn if he didn’t play one of the most disappointing gigs I’ve ever seen last weekend.

To be fair, I’m not even sure if it’s entirely his fault. I think a lot of the blame can fall to the organisers of the “We Love Music” event for some pretty appalling decisions. Let me go on a nasty rant in point form as to why it all went wrong:

1.) Don’t treat your customers like retards. If your flyer says DJ Shadow is headlining, people are going to come to see DJ Shadow. If your flyer says “Josh Davis & Keb Darge play obscure funk records you don’t know and can’t dance to for three hours whilst abusing the crowd” and people come then that’s sweet, they’ll be happy they’re seeing what they paid for. However, if your flyer is advertising the former and the plays the latter, expect to have a number of pissed off punters on your hands. Tricking people into paying for a gig is in nobodies best interest.

2.) Don’t sign acts to play that are wildly different unless you are prepared to (and have the resources to) manage it correctly. If you are running a lineup as fragmented as the one billed (4 or so DJs playing house or electro, Shadow doing his thing, Darge playing funk, Randoms playing whatever) then you need a clear vision of what you want the gig to be and how to achieve it. Given the diversity of the acts, the crowd was also quite varied.

This is key because you’re never going to be able to satisfy everyone but you do need to keep them interested. Keep them on the floor. Appreciate the fact that while 40% might be absolutely loving your set, you’ve still got 60% of people sitting around looking bored. So if you’re playing hip-hop, play stuff people can dance to. If you’re playing funk, cut it with some shit that will keep the mood up; if anyone had dropped a Shadow track that night the floor would have been packed instantly. It needed to be done. Instead they just meandered on and people drifted off, which leads me to point…

3.) Get your fucking lineup in order and fix it. Let people know what time people are starting and finishing. If you’ve got four excellent international DJs, Shadow, Darge and then a bunch of randoms, don’t play the randoms until two then let Darge on without a time-limit and destroy the event because it’s 5 in the morning, everyone has left and you still haven’t played any of your high energy acts. Either have your acts on a shorter rotation or start your headliners later. Just let people know what’s going on.

4.) The second you have one of your MCs shouting “We’re going to play some more funk and if you don’t like it, you can fuck off!” don’t be surprised if half your crowd does actually fuck off home. See point 1: Don’t treat your customers like retards.

So yeah, not the best gig I’ve ever been to. I did, however, find something mid-week that cheered me up. Brian Udelhofen runs the percussion club at a Minnetonka High School and they spend the summer learning how to play two tracks of Entroducing, ‘Building Steam with a Grain of Salt’ and ‘Changeling’. The results are amazing (WMV, 70mb) and I’d love to see what could be done with a whole orchestra and some vocalists. How good is the start to Changeling?

Shadow’s still a wanker though, Glebe said so.

Posted in Flatbeat on Friday September 30, 2005.