July 2, 2004
"A new day, another morning after"
Remember how I wrote yesterday that I couldn't see the Streets/Dizzee Rascal show and that I'd have to settle for Ted Leo at Fort Reno?
Well, that didn't happen.
Nobody wanted to go to Fort Reno, so I ended up buying a scalped ticket to the 9:30 show and going with N.M. In retrospect, as I one again work to scrub off that damn handstamp and recover my hearing, I believe I made the right choice.
First of all, Dizzee Rascal, the opener, speaks some language other than English when rapping, because it's not anything I've ever heard. This is strange, because when he freestyles a capella, I catch every word. In any case, he slowly got the crowd moving and served as an above-average opener, proving the Mary Prankster Theory of Bad Opening Acts Stealing Your Glory is not true. Heck, the one person at the club who was having the most fun watching Dizzee was Mike Skinner of the Streets, who spent the whole set head-bopping and skittering around the balcony over the stage.
At this point it is worth noting that N.M. left me in the middle of the crowd to take pictures closer to the stage. I couldn't press forward during the set break to meet up again, so I spent about 95 percent of the show standing alone in the crowd, like some sort of creep.
That being said, I very much enjoyed the main act, although N.M. later said she didn't like it. It's an acquired taste - Skinner doesn't so much rap as he speaks with the tacit acknowledgement that there's a beat behind him. This makes for some interesting rhyme structure, which compliments the narrative style of his songs, something almost completely gone from American rap.
Skinner raps about getting drunk, being whipped (relationship-wise, not with an actual whip, you perv), seeing a hottie on a fast-food restaurant line, owing money to a drug dealer or just being young, bored and unemployed. The stage act reflected this celebration of the mundane. Set up on the front of the drum kit were two liqour dispensers: one for vodka and another for brandy. During "Too Much Brandy," perhaps the most realistic account of a night of getting pissed ever recorded (how he remembered all the details, I'll never know), he handed out shots to the audience.
When passed up to him by an audience member, Skinner put on a Burger King crown, mentioning he once worked there. Perhaps a little cheesy, but it endeared him to the audience.
Mike Skinner displays his royalist tendencies.
Despite the free brandy, energetic performance and bouncing audience, there were some flaws worth mentioning. While fine for someone who has the album, I can understand how someone not too familiar with the songs could be put off by Skinner's mumbling. He needs to ann-un-ci-ate.
Also, it may fly in the U.K., but Skinner's on-stage partner's "F.B.I.- Female Body Inspector" shirt belongs in the trailer park, not on the stage.
And those smooth R&B interludes did get to be a little bit much.
But in general, it was a good show, even if it did end with Skinner crowd-surfing overhead, covering me in his sweat.
Posted by rj3 at July 2, 2004 9:23 AM
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Comments
it's not that i didn't like it, it's just that i was feeling crotchety and didn't really get into skinner's set. he's definitely a special performer and gets (almost) everyone in the crowd really into it. and sorry for getting separated from you, but, you know, that happens at lots of shows to lots of people, so you did not look like a creep, i'm sure.
Posted by: nm at July 2, 2004 10:52 AM