We caught Amon Tobin and Ghislain Poirer at Metropolis last night during jazz fest. Yes, tickets were $40, but we got three solid hours of DJ entertainment. I hadn’t heard Poirer before and liked his stuff a lot — more conventional than Tobin but with a good feel, as he mixed DJing with a live drummer. Except that in the middle of his set a rapper came on. I forget his name The guy struck me as classic Francophone hipster in dress and demeanor, and his vocal style nailed the Jamaican thing that seems so hip right now. But it just didn’t work. Though to be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rapper in a live performance setting where I didn’t feel like I was in some cheesey ripoff of a music video. “Raise your hands y’all!”
Amon Tobin was amazing. The music was constantly evolving and a mix of sort of ethereal textures, heavy beats and the frenetic stuff he does so well. But the thing that got me was the bass. I don’t go to a lot of DJ shows or sound system battles, so it was new to me. The low end was so deep that the floor just shook. It was weird — super loud in intensity but so low that at times the music almost seemed quiet in the higher registers. Keep in mind I said “almost.” Anyway, it was a great show, no doubt helped by the fact that he was playing to the hometown crowd. His set was just under 2 hours longs. Way longer than any band I’ve ever seen at the Metropolis.