DJ Shadow at First Avenue
Previous to Sunday night’s show in First Ave’s Mainroom, it had been over three years since DJ Shadow spun in Minneapolis, which is about two years longer than a hardcore fan prefers to wait. Perhaps because DJ Shadow only has hardcore fans, or perhaps because of the oppressive heat, or the relatively high price of tickets, a threatening air of nervous anticipation bubbled in the crowd as people filed in. Local hip-hop mainstay DJ Espada valiantly tried to get the some heads bobbing, but music nerds are a stiff bunch. Luckily, the First Ave bartenders pour a stiff G-n-T.
But as soon as the curtain went up on “Live From The Shadowsphere,” all those petty fears melted away. If you hadn’t heard, the “Shadowsphere” in question is, literally, a giant white ball, inside of which (like Lady Gaga’s older, dressed-down brother) Shadow performs his set. After a characteristically humble “Thanks for coming” shpeel, Shadow entered his pod via a secret entrance upstage, leaving the audience to go ahead and nerd the fuck out as four-plus super-hi-def projectors sprayed expertly crafted visuals all over the Shadowsphere, transforming it into a 3-D space craft blasting off DJ Shadow’s own personal universe. It was immediately, to coin a trip-hop phrase, “totally fucking dope.”
As the next two hours flew by, DJ Shadow came correct with a seamless set of tracks old and new, proving to his rabid masses that, no, he had not lost his touch, and, yes, the Shadowsphere was much more than a gimmick. Just as the audience began to catch their breath, a live feed of Shadow’s projected visage appeared on the outside of the pod, like Dr. Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the crowd erupted again into a fit of geeky glee.
Familiar tracks like “This Time (I’m Gonna Try it My Way)” and “Walkie Talkie” featured their original videos cleverly reworked for the Shadowsphere format, interspersed with stoner-pleasing effects like bloody chainsaw bisections and a surprisingly moving image of Earth spinning against the Milky Way. A new track off of Shadow’s forthcoming EP I Gotta Rockk showed the sphere as a robotic ball, assembling itself in some imagined music factory, and the crowd went wild yet again, as it about-faced to reveal Shadow, in the flesh, wailing out an axe solo on his drum machine. Hip-hop purists delighted as he performed “High Noon” and “Six Days” before their very eyes, eventually spinning back around for an epic, cathedral finish with “Organ Donor.”
DJ Shadow himself said it best, just before his 45-minute encore: “Next time you see a DJ up here spinning, ask them why they aren’t doing more stuff—you know, working harder.”
He may have been joking, but even the hardest-core fans should agree that the Shadowsphere experience was well worth the wait and the price. In an age of downloading and webcasting, a well-carried out stage show gives a penny-pinching audience additional incentive to support its favorite artists without grumbling. Not only did the 25 bucks turn a sticky summer night into an awesome set from a skilled DJ, the audience also got a 3-D movie, performance art, and the world’s best laser show, all in one. It was, perhaps, the hip-hop of the future.
