05/01/07 Middle East Cambridge MA
EL-P
Hangar 18
Mr. Dibbs and the Mighty Quin
Slow Suicide Stimulus
Yak Ballz
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Hangar 18 et. al. were ok -I hadn't heard any of the opening acts before, and the sound was less than stellar both vocally and from the DJ's. H18 took a move from the Faith No More playbook - they named their 2004 Def Jux album
The Multiplatinum Debut Album similar to FNM's 1997 album
Album Of The Year. H18's style seemed to be that of vocal Hot Potato from the dual MC's with servicable and solid beats, but nothing that overwhelmed me. They had one track that had a fun sped up Guns N Roses loop which I enjoyed.
After being introduced to the stage by his greying ponytailed (mellow California looking dude wearing a vest)father,EL-P came out in an orange jumpsuit with bruise makeup and fake blood to run with the "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" motif.
EL-Producto ripped right into 'Tasmanian Pain Coaster' with a quick 1-2 punch into one of his biggest 'hits' amongst fans: 'Deep Space 9mm' from 2002's
Fantastic Damage
Aside from the bandana-masked dj in fatigues at the back of the stage, EL-P was accompanied by a tall mc sidekick in olive drab fatigues (I didn't catch his name and I haven't consulted any 'hip-hop head' kids to confirm his identity -sorry)
EL-P knew his audience well and there was a lot of frenzied and active crowd participation - call and response segments - both to his more 'classic' repretoire as well as to the majority of the selections played off of
I'll Sleep....
I found this verbal interaction impressive because on EL-P's records the vocals are buried in a morass of sonic shrapnel, so most of these kids in the audience (yep I am so totally not age appropriate for this shit anymore) have either been doing their headphone homework or have dorked out on the album's included lyric sheet. (BTW: included lyric sheets on Hip-Hop albums are such a rare but welcomed treat for me when I get them - you usually have to guess at what folks are saying)
After the first 3 or 4 songs, there was a breakdown for the DJ which included some turntable interplay which used Radiohead's
National Anthem as a foundation. The DJ segment was quickly halted, however as there were to be mondo sound problems for the DJ from this point on in the show.
I think I read somewhere off of Def Jux's site that EL-P was rehearsing with a band for some of these gigs, so honestly I was a tad disappointed to just see a single folding banquet table laden with a bunch of turntables, AKAIS / samplers, crossfaders, mixers and hard-drives loaded with beats, but it was still a great show because of the command EL-P et. al had over the audience.
B / B+