the brothers work it out….

in the summer of 1995, i was producing /co-hosting on gibby haynes’ radio show on 101x. gibby had almost complete control of the music we played on the show, but he had run his cd collection dry and started hitting up his friends to help out. one such bud that covered us in spades was king coffee, gibby’s drummer in the butthole surfers. he would supply us reams of music, but one of the first ones he slid our way (and it became a nightly played disc) was exit planet dust from the chemical brothers.

the name of their debut cd came from their low self-esteem, to a degree. when they started off DJing and piddling around with music in england, they never thought they would be anything big, so they adopted the moniker of their favorite pair of stateside DJs, the dust brothers. well, once they started to make a name for themselves, the REAL dust brothers decided that that name didn’t need to be theirs, and a new, more legal name was found; hence the exit from planet dust.

i saw the chems a few years ago, and was fairly unimpressed. the music was pretty good, the mixing seemless, and the visuals acceptable…but overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, they hovered around a 5; which kinda sucked considering they were (and still are) one of my favorite electronic acts. then came tonight.

i HAD three favorite electronic shows that in my opinion showed how killer live electronic stuff can be (this is as far as the newer electronic stuff goes…nothing compares to new order, nin, or the all mighty depeche in my world) the three heavies thus far would be…

1. prodigy, lollapalooza, 1997
2. fatboy slim, my 28th birthday, 1999
3. moby, lollapalooza 1995 (which i got to watch from the side stage ’cause he invited me & gib up on stage with him)

now, i’ve also sat through numerous performances by crystal method, orbital, the orb, low fidelity all stars, überzone, etc…but those were the big three shows. until tonight. there is a new numero uno…

chemical brothers, 2k2

DAMN….

they came with three goals in mind…

1. to burn your retinas out of your skull
2. to make your ears bleed
3. to make your ass move

and let me tell you, plenty of ass moved…and a lot of it looked REALLY good. this was the largest crowd of phenomenal women i’ve seen at the music hall since nelly furtado..and most of these actually looked to be legal age…or at least i hope so, ’cause if not i mentally broke MANY laws tonight. seriously though, if most of you girls aren’t dancing somewhere, you need to be. don’t be shy. do it in “baby step” form, to utilize my buddy keith’s phrase..start off with a small crowd. like just me. okay, me, and a girl i know who’ll appreciate it just as much (you’d be more comfortable getting naked in front of a girl, right? just think of it as the high school gym class locker room). i’ve got a canopy bed…we can plop down on that, and two of you can use the front posts as poles….it’ll be fun. that way you can see if that kind of thing is for you…just click the email link above if you’re interested, and i’ll line up things on my end. where was i??? oh yeah…the show.

talk about visuals….(and i don’t just mean the female audience members)…the lights, the projections…jesus christ (he even got some screen time at this one). basically, the light show the chemical brothers have makes the lights pink floyd had in their hay day look like a couple of your buddy’s getting drunk and fucking around with laser pointers.

and the sound? loud enough to where i don’t think i’ll hear properly for about three days. kinda sad, really…earlier in the day i was recommending ear plugs to somebody, as in telling them what kind was most effective, and i don’t think to take any with me. now i can’t hear….and i swear the bass made at least one little rave kid shit themselves….add to that the social aspect (not only kramer, but gibby, 101x folk, phildo from the skatenigs, and countless others i haven’t seen in years), and it was an overall bad-ass night…plus, i don’t think kramer will ever look at live electronic music the same again. up till now, all he’s seen is that “two turntables and a mixer” stuff…which folk like fatboy do well…but the chemical brothers have more gear onstage than is required for a nasa launch, and they use it to blow you through the back of your mind. i have NEVER wished i was stoned so bad in my life…and i think kramer might have felt the same way. to quote homer simpson, “whether you have glaucoma, or you just rented the matrix, marijuana can make your life fabulous…” this show would have been ten times the matrix experience, and we all would have walked out with that dazed look in our eye like keanu reeves has had since we all knew him as “ted”….and then been off to cabana to eat our weight in carne guesada…