I agree with Jason - the sound for Dizzee's set kind of sucked - but I
thought his delivery more than made up for it. In addition to five or
six album tracks, he had several a capella and a few freestyles over
trad. hip hop beats.
I'm also impressed that D. and his crew (sideman and dj) didn't mess
around with too much warmup of the crowd. It seemed like the crowd was
only around 70-80% fired up at the start, which, I'm sure, is
significantly less than the last time they played out in the UK. If they
had been messing around with the call and response that seems to bog
down the start of so many hip hop shows interest may have waned.
Anyway, that part of the show was great. I didn't stay for Matt Dear,
mainly because I was quite disappointed the last time I saw him, back in
December I think, at Filter 14.
The space was really impressive, quite large, and should be a great spot
for the Mayer and Superpitcher show, as Jason mentioned.
Funkstorung are playing there Thursday, and Ken Ishii is in town Sunday
at the old Twilo, Spirit NY. Busy weekend!
Nick
