Turntablist, scratchologist, crate-digger, mix master and cut chemist DJ Shadow graced the stage at legendary Stubb’s BBQ in Austin this past Sunday. Like so many others in attendance on this muggy September night, I had been a fan of Shadow’s experimental instrumental sounds since first hearing the classic Entroducing, in 1999 (three years after it’s initial release but oh well). Nearly ten years later, I still hadn’t had the opportunity to see Shadow perform live – tonight would be a special night.
Arriving late, minutes before Shadow would take the stage and well after supporting act and Shadow’s Quannum labelmate Lateef the Truth Speaker had completed his set, we worked our way through the crowd to get in prime position to watch Shadow’s hands work their magic. Upon taking the stage to uproarious applause, Shadow welcomed his audience and briefly acknowledged a rather unwelcoming visit to Waterloo Records for a scheduled-but-forgotten-about in-store earlier in the day. Shadow also made mention of his “special” relationship with Austin TX (no doubt a reference to the illegally bootlegged Shadow performance dubbed Live in Austin that hit the market in the downtime between Entroducing and it’s follow-up Private Press.)
Shadow’s set began with a quick review of classic material from both Endtroducing and Private Press, sometimes combining tracks from both, creating his own personal mash-ups of sorts, with beats from one track making love to melodies off another. “Six Days” had the crowd singing in unison while bangers like “Giving Up The Ghost,” a sped-up “Fixed Income” and the breakthrough cut “What Does Your Soul Look Like” brought the crowd to a fever pitch.
After thirty minutes of recap and review, the DJ unveiled one of his newest tracks. “Seein Things” featured hardcore Southern rapper David Banner waxing about Katrina and the failure of government while images of New Orleans touched the screen behind Shadow. The just-as-banging “3 Freaks,” featuring Bay Area up-and-comers Turf Talk, followed. As far as crowd-moving goes, this was the height of the evening’s performance, for as impressive as Shadow’s instrumentals are, something about an emcee can make a crowd go crazy.
With our ears still ringing from the trunk-rattling bass of Banner’s track, Shadow paused to chat with his audience. Addressing the criticism Outsider has received on the Internet and in print (for being too diverse, a schizophrenic escapade or just plain escapist) Shadow explained how he understood his audience, how he knew his fans were smarter than the critics and we could get down with a folk song followed by a hardcore rap song, even if the industry “didn’t get it.” This was the motive behind Outsider and clearly this struggle to communicate a deep appreciation of sound and rhythm of every variety to music fans everywhere is what keeps Shadow on the road, bringing his art to the masses.
So with that acknowledgement of mutual understanding, Shadow announced the presence of a very special guest. British vocalist Chris James then came out from behind the stage to perform his Shadow-produced contributions to The Outsider. On “You Made It,” James’ voice oozed over electropop beats coupled with shoegazer melodies a la Album Leaf, Blockhead and others. “Erase You” found James doing his best Bono impersonation, his falsetto moan reaching orgasmic climax and even ripping the line “under a blood red sky.” It was unclear how much of the audience was interested in this excursion and while Shadow’s appreciation of Brit-pop is surely applaudable, a DJ’s primary role is to rock a party and in this moment, the vibe suffered.
No worry, as Shadow soon brought out another guest, his traveling hypeman and longtime collaborator, Lateef the Truth Speaker. Showing up late my guests and I had missed Lateef’s warm-up act so catching this amazing emcee with Shadow was a bonus for sure. Lateer is a crowd pleaser of the finest caliber and the audience was clearly stoked to hear some of his and Shadow’s classic collabos, including the Latyrx gem “Lady Don’t Tek No.” Getting the crowd thoroughly involved with “repeat after me” and “let me hear some noise” demands is the primary (and original) roll of the emcee, to get the crowd appreciating the DJ and what he is doing, and in this, Lateef excelled.
Following a brief intermission, Shadow returned to the stage and the crowd exploded in excitement as the DJ began the unforgettable melody of the Endtroducing standout “Organ Donor.” Sticking with the save your best for last mantra, Shadow next went into a much harder beated remix of his Thom Yorke collaboration “Rabbit in Your Headlights” from the UNKLE record Psyence Fiction.
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