El-P rocked the house last night in Crawdaddy with a proper hip hop show. I always hesitate in buying tickets for hip hop gigs nowadays as so many are bereft of showmanship and entertainment, it’s just depressing. Example – Talib Kweli in the Village a couple of years back – when he took a camera off someone in the front row and refused to give it back. He tried to make amends by freestyling about the incident thinking it made him some kind of cool fucker. The crowd booed, he eventually gave the camera back, but it was too late. He had already soured the atmosphere for most.
No such problem for El Producto. Stepping on stage in an orange jumpsuit to the sound of Donnie Darko’s Mad World, backed by camouflaged DJ Mr Dibbs and The Mighty Quinn. No live band but none was required. His reasoning is that he spent two years making these beats so he doesn’t want to replace them with some session musician conceived at Woodstock. Dibbs was suffering from a severe ear infection that meant he was passing out before the show but he soldiered on. The proceeding set was ripped through with an intensity refreshing to see for a hip hop show. But then, If there was anyone who wouldn’t let me down, it would be El. He understands that the current ilk of dollar-grabbing rappers are the cancer of live hip hop. He talks about how rappers don’t rehearse, citing his 8 hour a day rehearsal sessions prior to the tour.
Much of the set was taken from the brilliant dystopian new album I’ll Sleep when you’re Dead with a few older tunes that were extremely well received (“Stepfather Factory” , “Tuned Mass Damper”, Company Flow’s “Vital Nerve”, “Deep Space 9mm”). He bantered with the crowd throughout about emoing out (“The Overly Dramatic Truth”), crying naked, cocaine users (“The League of Extraordinary Nobodies”), his fear of flying (“Flyentology”) and the crowd bantered back – “Get off the stage ya Orange bastard” which was totally lost on him.
El told us afterwards that they needed a good show and the Irish crowd delivered the best one of the last two weeks, saying previous shows were analogous to “a monkey jerking off in a cage in front of little kids. There’s only a release at the end.” a reference to European audiences infected with Whelans disease, a dangerous virus the symptoms of which are: lack of engagement in a gig, hushing fellow audience members, frowning on those dancing not standing around as required, and ONLY clapping at the end of the song. EL-P was simply too good and upbeat for such a catastrophe to happen and to top it all off, he hung around outside for about an hour after the show chatting to everyone. Top bloke.
Videos:
El-P – Stepfather Factory
El-P – Drive
El-P – Vital Nerve
El-P – The Overly Dramatic Truth (“Emotastic!”)
MP3
EL-P – Flyentology (Cassettes Won’t Listen Remix)
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Tagged under: Gigs, Hip Hop, Music, Remixes, Video
Sorry I missed this, but I too am wary of the hip-hop show these days. Great album, that El-P one.
Although, I liked that Talib show…and I thought he treated the dude with the camera well..it was funny for us at least.
Sweet show aye, few Company Flow songs was nice surprise. Thought he’d be about after cause he seems pretty down to earth but stupidly i fucked off home instead
Sweet show aye, few Company Flow songs was nice surprise. Thought he’d be about after cause he seems pretty down to earth but stupidly i fucked off home instead
pretty great gig. really refreshing after having seen so many bad hip hop shows in the past. crowd was really up for it and knowledgeable which helped loads.
na na na na na na na na nan an an an an anan a a
FIND THOSE DETONATORS!!
Damn Mr. Niall you get to go to all the cool gigs.
This looks brillo, yup, too many hip hop shows are laaaaame alrigh
*maebh
[...] El-P @ Crawdaddy, Dublin [...]
I saw El-p in Leeds last night. Top gig, probably one of the best I’ve been to in a while.
So Roman Abramovitch is now moved on from Chelsea and is calling himself El-P? Fair enough.
yup
I saw him at the troubadour in Hollywood and that show was TIGHT!! I met him after the show, took, pics, he signed autographs. Down 2 earth dude and what an amazing show! Hip-Hop as it should be!
[...] El-P was great like the last gig in Crawdaddy. The venue has been given a facelift, the wall between the bar and the stage is gone, replaced by carpet floors on two levels, then a wooden dancefloor. The sound-desk is now stage right on the floor which makes sense. However, the sound was bass-heavy and the vocals were low which was disappointing. [...]