photos by Zach Dilgard

Before firing up their decks at the McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn on Thursday night, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist cleared the stage for an instructional film, projected onto two backdrop screens. Beginning with a brief history of the 45-r.p.m. record, the film moved on to the logistics at hand. "All audio is being delivered via vinyl on eight turntables into four mixers," a voice declared, in the plummy tone of a 1950s studio announcer. That may not sound like an applause line, but at this show it drew exuberant cheers.
[NY Times]

Not an easy show to get into (a hard sell?) if you like to dance, cool (in a geeky way) nonetheless. Zach saw the Brooklyn show. I made the trip to Atlantic City for the show the next day. We both agreed on the dancey part (especially compared to Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow doing shows on their own in the past.)

The Atlantic City show at House of Blues was weird. The low-ceiling room was on the 2nd floor of a casino off the boardwalk, above slot machines. There was no stage. There were no chairs. There was a little bar in the back. There was some art on the walls. Everyone had to stand in a semi-circle around the two deejays as they mixed songs on a table and projected stuff on to screens behind them. The screens were also basically at floor level. Two big stacks of speakers were placed in each corner of the tables on the floor. The sound was not very good. If the show was more packed (it wasn't that packed), it would have been impossible to see anything for most people there, especially short people. It must have been weird for Shadow & Chemist to go from headlining the huge McCarren Pool with a big stage and giant video screens one day, to that AC show one day later. It was the first time I went to House of Blues in Atlantic City, but as far as I could tell they have multiple rooms for shows. I don't think that's the same room Al Green is playing in. More pics from McCarren below....

Continue reading "DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist (Hard Sell) played McCarren Pool (pics) & House of Blues in AC"

The Hard Sell (aka DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist) added a few more tour dates since the Brooklyn & AC announcement. The Brooklyn show is at McCarren Pool and tickets are still on sale. The Mariaville show is called Camp Bisco and MSTRKRFT, !!!, LA Riots and Snoop Dogg are also on that bill. The rest of the currently-announced lineup for that three day festival, and all Hard Sell dates, below....

Continue reading "updated Hard Sell tour dates & Camp Bisco 7's initial lineup "

Tickets are on sale (@ 10) for the upcoming DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist show at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn.

DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist have three currently-announced shows coming up. One is TONIGHT...in Australia. The others are July 17th at McCarren Pool (tix on sale Friday) and the very next day at House of Blues in AC (tix on sale Saturday). All (of those three) dates below....

Continue reading "DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist playing Brooklyn & Atlantic City"

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist ("The Hard Sell") added a 2nd NYC show at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza in NYC. Tickets are now on sale for January 26th (old show) and January 27th (new show). They've also announced a bunch of other shows since we last spoke. All dates below...

Continue reading "DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - 2008 Tour Dates, 2nd NYC show"

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist are The Hard Sell - 8 turntables, 4 mixers & 2 effects pedals. A CD and DVD are coming soon, and tickets go on sale Friday for a January 26th (2008) show at the Fillmore NY Irving Plaza.

A full tour will be announced shortly, but in the meantime, the other known dates are below....

Continue reading "DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist (The Hard Sell) - tour in 2008"