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 