Slim's February 16, 2004 Review by Jake Thomas My friend said “get there early, the first group is an underground hip-hop group that are pretty good.” So on his advice, instead of showing up right before the Notwist were to go on, I go there in enough time to catch a few songs of by Themselves. My first reaction wasn’t the most pleasant – I was bewildered by the front man for this collective and his odd, nasally voice. After my initial shock though I started to notice the music – and it was good. In fact, some of the best hip-hop live instrumentation I’ve ever heard…each of the three members in the group had a huge console of shit they were controlling: keyboards, samplers, drum pads, pedals, and god knows what else. I was slowly sucked in, and by the end of their set I was really, really into what I was hearing. I’m still not 100% on the vocals but I have to give the guy credit for being unique, and as the show went on they definitely grew on me. I’m particularly excited to see what they sound like on record, but my broke ass spent way too much money on a new computer and couldn’t afford any of their stuff at the show (which is where you should always try and buy your new music if possible, since all of the proceeds go directly to the band – unless the club has some stupid profit sharing policy). What can I say about the Notwist that I didn’t say before? It’s more of the same, but boy is that something good. They haven’t really released anything new since “Neon Golden” came out, and most of the live material came from that. They do a great job of changing the songs up here and there just enough to make them fresh and exciting yet still familiar – live Fugazi shows often leave me with the same feeling. Another thing they have in common with Fugazi live is how much of a dub influence shines in their live performance. But the highlight of the night was the two performances of the Notwist/Themselves Big Band – all members of both groups on the stage performing at the same time. I’m unsure as to how free-form the whole thing was, but it doesn’t really matter – I think those two songs were head and shoulders above the rest of the music I heard that night…I would give anything for a bootleg of the performance so that I could listen to it over and over again. there was a very heavy Sonic Youth-vibe to the collaborations, mixed with the strange Themselves vocals, a million keyboard and electronic noises, live drumming, dubby guitars – it was pure bliss. Here’s to hoping that in some way or form there are recordings of this meeting and they see the light of day. The world would be better for it. ©2004 playinginfog.com |