a few more CMJ links before I get out of here

MIA went on at 10:30. She was good but the whole night felt like a mess. The opening DJ went on at 8 and for the first hour the crowd was into it. He was nothing special and mostly played various hip hop tracks that were played at every frat party for the past 10 years. By 9:15 the crowd was getting restless and started chanting MIA. Around 9:30 or so we reached the Notorious BIG portion of the night as said DJ played a bunch of BIG songs in a row - just and odd decision.

By 10:00 the crowd was getting pissed and a lot of the energy that we had was leaving the building. MIA chants started again and we were told "soon". At this point a second DJ came on for about 15 minutes. The crowd's frustration continued to mount. At 10:15 the music stops entirely and now they had a pissed crowd with nothing to distract them. African Boy (I think that was his name) came on stage to try and warm the crowd - it didn't work. He was also really into the idea of having the crowd chant "whoop there it is" which was odd and wasn't exactly a hit.

10:30 MIA hit the stage and the crowd went crazy . She has such an engaging personality that it was hard to not be thrilled. Then half way through the set some other rapper from Maryland did a song. I'm not really sure who or why but it wasn't MIA and again the crowd went into a mini-funk. The rest of the set was pure MIA goodness with the exception of African Boy coming on stage for a few songs and again wanting the crowd to chant "whoop there it is". Looks of WTF? were pretty prevalent during said moments. The show ended at about midnight.

All in all the overall experience was good, not great, but not necessarily a function of MIA herself but of the overall experience. I could have definitely dealt without the extensive delay, random people doing their songs during a headliner's set, and all the "whoop there it is" requests.

Posted by mp77 | October 19, 2007 9:46 AM

mp77: thanks for the write-up. Your experiences last night are the reason I stopped going to hip hop shows a few years' back. I've never understood why anyone would think it a good idea to go on 2 hours late and then interrupt their headlining seat with a performances by other people, but oddly this seems to be the norm in this genre.

Posted by edwyn the bear | October 19, 2007 10:25 AM

what song did M.I.A. play last at terminal 5 thursday night?

Posted by As3 | October 19, 2007 10:36 AM

I saw We Are Wolves, Black Kids, and Mates of State last night at the Annex (cool venue I thought).

We Are Wolves were pretty intense and funny, the music was loud, the drums were thumping, and they were more or less excellent. They also seemed to be speaking a bizarre language and making strange sounds a lot (and not French, I know they're from Montreal). Also when the drummer and keyboard player switched instruments it was pretty great.

Black Kids were also interesting (I thought, well a few songs anyway). The guitarist's amp broke during their first song, and delayed the show for around 10 minutes. I guess at times they sounded a lot like a weird version of The Cure, it was nice to see (and hear) the ladies at keyboards, who were kinda cute and seemed really to be enjoying themselves.

Mates of State were good, the Nico closer cover (actually a Jackson Browne cover) was nice, especially the drummer's bassy keyboard accompaniment. But I wanted to hear Proofs. They drew the most crowd.

Too many photographers (probably 8) - flash bulbs everywhere, I was going blind. I guess we'll have some great photos.

Posted by this monkey | October 19, 2007 10:57 AM

baltimore chick is Rye Rye, she's like 16 and blaqstarr, diplo, etc. etc. are producing for her.

Posted by Anonymous | October 19, 2007 11:01 AM

and cocorosie at deitch tonight!!
free . fun . i heard that yesterday was wild and rave

Posted by jeff | October 19, 2007 4:13 PM

It is hard to say such a thing is clear.

Posted by louis | October 17, 2009 11:59 AM