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As I See ItNovember 17, 2005... Went to a gig last night and am still having hard time processing it. Let me set the scene for you... Fact one: the gig is in a small-to-medium-sized Canadian city with a large university. Fact two: the headlining act sounds a bit like Public Image Limited or the Slits or Gang of Four. Gang of Four - To Hell With Poverty (2005 Remake)Now, based on those facts, imagine in your mind's eye what the audience looks like. Are you seeing young people with backpacks full of books? Good. Yes, the audience is comprised of university students. Now, what "colour" are these people? That's right: they white. But what's this I see? The second band on the bill is on stage setting up, and there ain't a white face among them. Seriously. The drummer? That motherfucker is black. And the bassist and the guitarist, too. I hustle in a little closer, tryna figure out what's going on. With all those guys loitering around on stage with their hats pulled down over their eyes, the band kinda looks like a hip-hop crew. But what would a hip-hop crew be doing on a bill with a headliner that sounds like Public Image Limited or the Slits or Gang of Four? In my mind's eye, I fantasize that these guys, who are from out-of-town and completely unknown, also sound like Public Image Limited or the Slits or Gang of Four, and will proceed to effortlessly blow the headliners and the rest of us away. Bad Brains - Banned in DCYeah, I imagine to myself, these fuckers could be the Bad Brains of the new millennium: "black" guys who take a "white" form of music and play it better than anybody else. The Bad Brains did it with punk rock. These guys will do it with post-post-punk or dance-punk or whatever you wanna call it. They know they're good, and they're testing the ability of a white audience to see beyond the whole race thing and just acknowledge good music when they hear it... Then the band starts to play a song... At least, I think they're playing a song. Certainly, there is ... sound ... coming from the stage. The drummer, who now has his t-shirt pulled over his head like a hood, leads the attack. "Yo, we just here to spread our kinda love, you know what I mean?" he says into the mic before launching into an unsteady and ultimately lacklustre beat. The bassist joins in with a series of notes that seem purpose chosen to kill all human movement. And the guitarist... I mean, is he trying to make his guitar sound that bad? Or does he have a different set list from everyone else in the band? Wait a minute, though, he is wearing a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. There's hope yet. Maybe these guys are the Great Black Hope of indie rock in 2005. Maybe they mean to sound that bad. What? What's that? Oh no! Those guys loitering around with they hats pulled down ova they eyes? They have mics in their hands now. They're MCs. There's going to be hip-hop. EL-P - Jukie Skate RockOnly this hip-hop isn't good. No, this hip-hop has an unsteady, lacklustre beat and a bassline that seems "purpose chosen to kill all human movement." The MCs are okay, I suppose. I can't unnerstand what they're saying, but they are saying it fast and it does seem to have a rhythm to it. I'm just not sure it's the same rhythm as any of the other people on the stage. Three songs into the set, the band does a number whose lyrics consist of nothing but the band's name spelled-out, again and again. Suddenly, in my mind's eye, I see the guys on stage with backpacks full of books. They're university students and this is a sociological experiment. You know, like let's see if white folks will lap up shit that sounds vaguely like hip-hop simply because we, the performers, are black. I am now laughing out loud. The song ends and the drummer takes charge again. "Yeah, [insert name of town here]. Shit, we love comin' here. It's like, comin' home, man. You know what I mean? I mean, I don't need to tell you what's goin' on here. You know what's goin' on here," he says before launching into another shaky-sounding beat. Anyway, I think I know what's goin' on here, but, to be honest, I'm not completely sure. Permadink | | |
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