cockteaser, do you keep a tally of how often you make that comment?
it must be in the hundreds now.

11 Nov - Marystaple, Grinspoon, Pacifier @ Parthenon Hall

- tool
- all the gigs i played and saw

Oh..My..God... I confess I didn't even know who he was - I just went because a friend of mine was practically wetting himself over the prospect of seeing the gig. Anyhoo, it was fuckin amayyyyyyzing!!

He had four (count them! Four!) turntables and two samplers, one of which he saved for the encore, but more about that in a mo. The music was quite diverse, a lot of pretty laid-back hiphop styles merging with some drumnbass to get the tempo moving a bit. All in all the gig was quite languid, I thought. If people went there to flail maniacally, then they would've been disappointed.

He had a guy doing a whole stack of video stuff that was projected behind him on stage, which kinda made the show, really - he had this whole visual symphony of things like sweeping shots through the solar system, and spiralling flowers and busy intersections and the like; and a coupla pics of the Sky Tower just to get in with the natives.

One thing surprised me, he took quite a bit of time out to talk - the gig was divided up into a lot of individual sets rather than just one long DJ session. He was interesting; describing what he was doing, who he collaborated with, a bit of his history, but I started getting a bit "yeah, that's all well and good, but play some fuckin music!".

At the end of his set, of course everyone all went ape for an encore, and he came out and said "I'm really glad you did that because now we can do some really interesting stuff; you won't have seen this before, and it'll probably be a while before you see it again", and then did this whole thing with video samples - he had samples of some drum tuition videos - a great '80s rock drummer and a latin bongo guy. He put together this whole amazing drum tune, just like using normal samples except you had the whole video with it and everything. It was worth the price of the ticket just for the encore!

A friend of mine told me a coupla his friends who'd gone reckoned it was really mediocre (!!) and one of them left halfway through (BIG mistake: missed the encore), but I was just blown away. Some of the music wasn't my usual taste (I was kinda hoping he'd pep it up a bit), but the entire experience was totally new, and just fantastic.

Thanks Heather - he's a pretty special guy. If it wasn't such a long way to drive, I'd have been there - but I already had plans to come up the following week and stuff was happening. I caught up with him when I heard Six days for the first time, went and bought his CD, called um something - yes, Private Press - because of his interest in one off pressings of things. His first CD, Endtroducing is reputed as one of _those_ CD's - you know, the ones that the music mags rate as the most influential of all time. I think it was Muzik magazine's no 1 dance CD, and I will buy it one day.

That movie Scratch, which is about to play in AK, features him - and it had one of the saddest moments in any movie I have ever been to - yep, its bigger than Bambi. DJ Shadow was in his local record shop, where he has special access to the basement - it was a room as big as the shop, piled to the roof with records, records that no-one will ever see or hear again. Its not just that they were being stored in a way that will destroy them - you don't pile records, period - but all that artistic outpouring, entombed, forgotten.

You write a good review, btw - thanks.

Nov 22 at the KA - MIDIUM PRESENTS. Avotor, Meterman and Jakob. A fucking good night - Jakob were especially powerful on this occasion.

// Nov 22 at the KA - MIDIUM PRESENTS

i particularly liked avotor that night.

Yeah i wouldn't bother goin to that gig dude, cause with the huge pa in the regent you aint gonna hear anything from those bantamweights.

yep, that Lambs gig was great -- not one of their finest performances, perhaps, but there was definite buzz (love, even) in the air.

Brunettes at new Bodega this year was great too -- having the audience yelling for more even after two encores (one of which was a repeat of a song they'd already played) was fantastic. Likewise their Slowboat instore earlier that day was a bit special -- they'd actually be the perfect band to play a gig in your living room so well do they work at low volumes.

The one I'm gutted about missing was the old Bodega farewell (too sick, too tired). Breakfast of Champions are always a top act to catch live.

// HDU with Ghost Club at Arts Cafe, London

That sounds excellent...

//except that the Arts Cafe is small

Wouldn't that make it cooler? HDU at the old Bodega was the BEST. I was completely blown away by it... my ears nearly bled. good shit.

Well... the Wellington Michael Franti concert was delayed until this Monday... and I have my ticket and I am attending. And I will add it to my list if it indeed lives up to expectations :)

I don't know... I will let you know on Tuesday :)

If he isn't good, there'll be hell to pay. If he ain't good, then he won't be on the list... and then what will he do? He'd have to hang his head low.

i fully agree, woot sleater kinney!