Tuesday Night at the Echo was an All Star cast of what’s happening in modern music. Four Tet was headlining but the bill was also stuffed with Jamie Lidell, Koushik, Peanut Butter Wolf, and a special set by Percee P. Even knowing how great the lineup was, I was still surprised to see hundreds of people waiting in line as I drove up.
Koushik was throwing down some grooves as I walked in looking for Branden. Great mix of rare groove/soul/all around party music. I chatted up a few people and the buzz was definitely on for the next man to take the stage, Jamie Lidell. I tried to listen to some tracks on his site but wasn’t having any luck. So besides some words I read, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. There obviously wasn’t going to be a band joining him and as soon as he hit the stage, you knew this was going to be like nothing anyone had seen before. First of all, the guy is wacky, he’s got an evil genius smile with a English accent all wrapped up in a gosh-golley-ah-shucks enthusiasm. He started with some vocal over dubs and built on these with beatboxing, more overdubs, and knob twiddling tweaking. Then in about a minute or so, a whole new creation was flowing. When the groove was dead on he’s croon some UK soul meets Sam Cooke smoothness over the top. Back and forth he went constructing soundscapes only to briefly and frequently tear them apart. For his last track he launched into the title track from his new LP, Multiply. Straight up soul that have everyone dancing along and singing the chorus “so tired of beating myself, myself, gonna take a trip and multiply”
At this point everything was a bit hazy. No one quite knew what order people were playing so Peanut Butter Wolf started an improv battle with two random cats in the crowd. Neither really impressed but you gotta give ’em credit for jumping up on stage (i think). Koushik jumped back up for a minute and started dropping some beats for surprise special guest, Percee P, who, you could tell, had spent many years on the mic. He spit through a bunch of tracks that were either from his new album, Perseverance( Stones Throw), or from 1992. Which happens to be one of my favorite era’s for hip hop (Kriss Kross, Color Me Badd, PM Dawn, Hammer….) He broke into an acapella track “Verbal Saliva” and somehow referenced Pokemon and Cat Steven within 30 seconds of each other.
Kieran Hebden, AKA Four Tet opened up with his newest single off Everything Ecstatic, “A Joy”. Probably the most upbeat and driving cut he’s done to date. As the crowd hopped along, I noticed how much he was cutting and pasting and tweaking it to keep it fresh and original. It’s nice hearing a DJ create something that can’t exactly be replicated by just pluggin in a computer or deck. The Echo was the perfect place for this show. Not too big, nice, dark and packed. His set mostly focussed on tracks from Everything Ecstatic. “Smile Around the Face” grooved it with the high pitched call to groove. The rest of the set was filled in with tracks off “Rounds” “She moves she” was cut up while still holding the string solo together. He hopped off stage for a minute and the crowd applauded him back. I peeked out front and noticed a spot being vacated directly in front of the club. Ran down the street in my dancing shoes, fired up Bessy then drove down and flipped a bitch into the perfect parking spot right as people were starting to leave. Slung some cream and hung out for quite a while before calling it a great night.
