THE WEEKEND RETROSPECTIVE.

This weekend just passed I caught two shows; Jazzy Jeff playing a house set at Tank nightclub and DJ Shadow on Sunday at the Hordern. Both were shows i was keen to see - DJ Shadow hasn't toured in around 3 years and his new album's just dropped, plus it's not everyday you get to catch hip hop legend Jazzy Jeff perform one of his extra special - and rare as hens teeth - house sets.

Tank is a beautiful house club located in a Sydney side street. It's unassuming front door reek's of similiarities to venues in London or NYC and it's upmarket warehouse feel inside is no exception. It's a hedonistic hideaway & the perfect venue in which for Jeff to perform a soulful,
Jeff's certainly moved with the times for a hip hop dj working entirely off serato to weave his magic. By all accounts I should have hung around far longer than I did (he got off to a bit of a shaky start) as he worked the mixer to its full extent in a carefully crafted soulful house set that took in tunes from Parliament Funkadelic, Jill Scott, and Prince. The venue was packed to capacity with quite a few peeps bouncing around on the chairs up the back just to get a better view.

From there I went onto Chinese Laundry to hear Danny Bonnicci play. Danny's one third of uber Aussie live breaks act ' Nu-Breed' and he's recently started DJ'ing out on his own playing an eclectic electro/ minimal house style. He had the main spot in the Laundry and when we got there it was quite full. Nice one Danny!

3 out of 5 "Who's Your Daddy's" for Jazzy Jeff. He lost points for a slow start.

Onto Sunday and it was DJ Shadow who 5000 odd hip hop lovers packed into the Hordern to see. His last set in Sydney a few years back was apparently off the hook so I was really looking forward to it. When we got to the Hordern the queue was massive, but we did the sneaky 180 up the side, picked up our tickets from the box office and joined the queue entering the gates.

Mos Def was on first and I really enjoyed his 45 minute set. I don't think he was really given the opportunity as the support act to fully let loose but the little money's got some serious stage presence and the venue was easily half full of people ready to catch his first visit to Sydney. His show finished he was then off to Hollywood to do what all good hip hop stars do - crossover into films.

Up next was DJ Shadow and his staging & production was mind blowing. It always interests me to see the difference in the set up for the support & main act. Warms my cotton socks how the support act are completely gipped out of possibly overshadowing the main act by being supplied a minimally bare 1/2 sized stage and a banner as decoration. "Get down and stay down" in other words.

Anyhow back to Shadow's staging... 9 massive LCD screens, 3 x 3 across with his table set up at the top of the first set. Quite similiar to the Beastie Boys LCD layout if anyone saw their last tour. He had DVJ equipment hooked in, was probably working off Serato or Ableton (or both) as his laptop was prominent, and his "booth" went nearly the entire length of the 3 LCD screen's. A good size rack really.



Production-wise the sheer scale and quality of the work on the screens and visuals was beyond impressive, the planning required to link words & references to the visuals was alone stand out. This really was the highlight of the show. However artist interaction on the screen's was minimal and you were left to rely on the massive screens to relay everything a perception of what DJ Shadow may have precisely been up to up there.

I read a review the other day that his album is quite hit and miss and that there's very much a meaning to the immense political and personal messages it contains but that it didn't quite hit the mark - or that perhaps the mark would be discovered far later. I think this is the case with his show too. A few of the tracks (such as his one's with UK Indie singer Chris James) broke the flow of the show, and whilst they work ok on the album did not crossover into a concert style.



One of the highlights of the show was Lateef, of Quannum records fame joining DJ Shadow on stage for some hip hop lurvin. Albeit the big 'Mos Def/ Shadow' prediction
I was sprouting to all as a show stopping finish didn't occur (boo!) the Lateef segment rocked and he took the pace back up to where it needed to be after Chris James' woeful display of stage constipation in front of thousands.

4.0 out of 5 "Who's Your Daddy's" for this show. Extra pointage for the MoS Def factor.



If you made it this far in my long-winded spiel then congrats. There was an old school tune hidden within this post. Find it and you'll find the gold.

props to Mish for the photo's too.