OK - a quick review before the boss gets into work this morning Claude Young played in Minneapolis on Saturday night the event was free so many people showed up but I get the feeling that most of them showed up because of the no cover on a Saturday night rather than they knew who Claude Young is. The venue is a smallish room upstairs from the larger Quest nightclub (what used to be Prince's Glam Slam club) It's sort of an odd room in that they've tried to make it look like some Spanish or Italian piazza. There is a large fully functioning fountain in the room, a fake tree with a leaves and branches that spread out across the room, etc. The bar is small and there was only one poor bartender having to deal with a very long line of people very early. Anyway, on with the music. The warm-up DJs were insufferable. Mostly hard techno loops without any flair and no skills at mixing the tracks in any interesting fashion. My fellow 313 friends Drew Daugherty and Jason Kenjar will attest to the very poor quality of mixing/djing. Actually, it would be hard to call it real djing. Cutting out the bass for a four count and then bringing it back in was about the most imaginative thing they could do. Boring. After a while even the track selections were getting poor. It was two local jocks "tag-teaming" for about three hours - and it really felt like you were in the ring with them getting the pile driver the whole time. There was the occasional good tune but it was pretty much "dosh, dosh, dosh, dosh, cha, cha, cha, cha, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD" there were people on the dancefloor but out of maybe the dozen that were there were about three who you might describe as dancing. so suffer for three hours we did until Claude came on at midnight. I was very excited to see him as the last time he was here he tore the roof off First Ave nightclub. That was about 5- 6 years ago. First track - I have no idea what it was but it was funky as hell. Couldn't really hear it very well though and sound was a problem for a good part of the night (imo) (seems like they have a big rig but don't EQ it properly and then they proceed to overload it as the night wears on - I do mean wears on) Claude had both decks, CD player, and his laptop. So he's watching the crowd and smiling as this first track plays and people are right away getting down. I have no way of really describing this track in any detail that would allow anyone to ID it but it had a female vocal(s) and funk and soul to spare. Sort of an house/R&B track - that's about all I can say. Like I mentioned, the sound quality of the PA wasn't the best. It was loud but not very clear. For the next hour Claude went through a whole array of styles - dropping a rework of Kraftwerk straight off his computer (very very cool track), followed by Aphex Twin's Digeradoo, he got Aztec Mystic's Aguila in there (a very nice moment), and a few other tracks that were familiar but yet to be ID'd. Drew and Jason might have some others they picked out. I was surprised by all he got in just in the first hour - it seemed like we had been dancing longer than that. All was not well though - after suffering the first three hours of looped techno played without skill - for some reason Claude also played quite a number of rather (shrugs shoulders) "eh" techno tracks. There were too many selections that just weren't really doing it for me. Even I, who put Claude up among the mightiest, had a hard time connecting with the music. Just wasn't feeling a lot of what he was playing. There seemed to be a lack of really funky tracks. He did play some more colder, detached techno styles (in line with the warm-up DJs) - there just wasn't enough of a groove to pull me in before he went deep. It had nothing to do with his cutting, scratching, etc. I think some of it had to do with the mixed crowd - It seemed he was trying to figure out what people wanted and maybe just couldn't quite pin it down. He had his moments and it seemed the crowd reacted best to good tunes that had some progression. We had already had our fill of being pummeled by techno loops - my opinion is the crowd wanted a bit of a groove or melody. Anyway, his skills are amazing. He cuts the records like a hot knife through butter. Elbows, nose, and cheeks, were used extensively and there was a fantastic moment when he went ballistic on the mixer - using his mouth and nose to crossfade and then came back up and proceeded to chop up the two tracks like mincemeat. He was having fun and the crowd let him know they appreciated him. I do recommend the owners of that mixer to bring it in for repairs after this night. So, all-in-all it wasn't a bad night. Claude's technical skills are still amazing. I'd like to think some of the selections were due to trying to please everyone so I won't come down on him for that. He tried to get everyone into it and I give him credit for that. He's still one of my favorites because he always trys to keep it interesting - if the track isn't working then he'll throw his body into it - literally. He brought a smile to my face more than once Saturday night. thank you Claude for playing (and making it affordable for the promoters!) don't make the time between visits too long As for the local jocks - they better go back and practice. MEK
