Well folks, last night was an eye opening experience. My entire perception of an entire genre has been turned upside down.
As my repeat readers may have picked up on, I like my music played by musicians on actual instruments. Lately I’ve had a growing disdain for the trend of using backing tracks and other electro-wizardry to fill the sound on stage. Nothing brings joy to my ears more than an electric guitar channeling through a piping hot tube amp (if you know, you know) and digital music kinda leaves me flat.
And don’t even get me started on the whole DJ as Performer thing. I’ve seen few on stage, and every single one of them has been as exciting as watching paint dry. Seriously, watching somebody play records and twiddle knobs? That’s got to be one of the dumbest trends in music ever.
Quite frankly, that’s what I thought I was walking into last night. This show was picked by the Mrs., and I knew a few songs by the artist, but I didn’t have any expectations that I would enjoy the show.
And after the opening act, my preconceived notions were reinforced. I never caught his name. I’ll stand by the ol’ if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything and leave it at that.
But then the main act – RJD2- came out. Right off the bat, I knew something was different just by the gear set up he was using. I’m not going to pretend to know what all he was using up there, but it was definitely not your standard two turntables and a microphone setup. He had two sampler pads in addition to the turntable setup and who knows what else, and he played all those things with all the passion and precision of a master musician. It was extraordinary. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it.
His compositions were extremely complex and deeply layered. His choice of instrumentation was unique compared to his contemporaries in the genre. He somehow took bits and bytes, loops from all directions, and threw it into his digital blender to make it come alive. It was almost as if every finger was its own musician, with his brain as Conductor. It was astonishing. To put it mildly, I was shook.
I really don’t even know what else to say. I don’t know enough about the genre to make comparisons. I don’t know the HOW of it all, what sort of musical sorcery he conjured to make it happen. All I know, is I really, REALLY enjoyed it. And I’m open minded enough to admit, I’ve been wrong to cast such a wide net of derision over an entire genre.
So, big thanks to RJD2 for an amazing night and the eye and ear opening experience. I was unexpectedly surprised and quite delighted with his entire set.
Thanks for stopping by!
The Boring Old Man 
My first time seeing Jason Mraz, I was mixing monitors for him. My Daughter was there as a ‘stage hand’, and I had no clue what or who he was, but she was stoked. Then he came on stage with an acoustic (thumbs up) and an boomerang peddle board (big questions). What that man did with the peddle board (multiple looping tracks, and effects) made me feel just a little unneeded as a sound guy. He had his entire world set from plug in to final note and I was just there for the ride.
I found that day, that a true performer is ALWAYS that, and the gear is just whatever vehicle they cnoose. Sounds to me like this guy is one of that type, not one of the ‘lets make some fast money and get laid a lot” types. (and oh, did I work with my share of that type too.)
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Forgot to add. Check out Thomas Dolby’s live act sometime. Most of his ‘instrument’ is wired into his trenchcoat, and while he is a keyboard/synth artist, he is one hell of a showman as well.
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I’ve always wanted to see him. He’s actually playing in San Francisco next week, but it’s one of those 5 or 6 bands on the bill things, so it’ll probably be abbreviated sets of greatest hits… And getting all the way to SF after work is a lot these days for an ol’ geezer like me.
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