I ended up checking out Osunlade at Superlounge in Chicago last Saturday, overall a pretty good show and strong tunes. Osunlade definitely has skills and a commanding presence on the decks. I didn't have the religious experience that others have described hearing him, perhaps due to my slight aversion to a majority of vocal tracks in a set, but that's just a personal hang-up of mine. It's probably the same reason why I can't listen to an entire Joe Clausell mix CD either. (sorry Otto!) ;)
He did drop plenty of Moodymann, Theo and Herbert to keep me interested though, and he had the small floor groovin. Some abstract spacejazz kind of fusion tracks later I liked too. Unfortunately turnout was kind of a bust. What happened? I'd say much less than half of the crowd that turned out for Theo Parrish when he played the same space. On a Saturday night no less... I kept waiting for the second wave to come in later on and fill the place but it never happened. When I left at 3 it was getting even thinner, and they're open till 5am. And mind it's a pretty small space to begin with. I wonder if this gig was even promoted? From what I heard the last time he played there it was completely rammed full. Also the Saturday night crowd, especially by the bar is the "see and be seen" clubbing cheese crowd and you could tell who was there to hear the Osunlade specifically, and who came because this is a trendy new club trying to crawl their way to exclusive status (but the place doesn't quite have the draw or cache yet to pull it off... yet). It was unfortunately clear many people there hadn't a clue to what was going on musically or on the dancefloor, it could have been a CD playing 'MTV dance party usa' and they wouldn't have known or likely cared the difference, they weren't dancing anyway. Where were all the house headz that turned out for Theo? I mean it was FREE COVER for god's sake. Jazzanova I think played there Monday night which I missed. At least they are getting good DJ lineups good... gotta give em their due for that. peace, Matt MacQueen
