Vancouver, Quiet Down I Need to Make a Sound
Back from the M.I.A. concert in Vancouver—and by back, I mean back at the office—where she put on a good show. My expectations were fairly high, my clearly being obsessed with her, and unfortunately they weren't met. Let me at least, however, go into some detail about my concert-related expenses:
- Two tickets: $60. My friend couldn't make it—I'm not upset: I expected to go alone anyway—so I gave the ticket away to some random hot girl in the "buying tickets" line at the club. Their male companion asked how much I was giving it to them for, so it must have come to a surprise to them that I just gave it away. I didn't stick around long enough for them to thank me.
- T-shirt with faux-military insignia: $20. There's no indication that it's a t-shirt for M.I.A., so I have no proof that I was, like, there man.
- Ridiculous ATM charge: $2.50. To buy the aforementioned t-shirt.
- Ridiculous coat check fee: $3.00. Definitely leaving my jacket at the office next time if possible.
I didn't bother staying for LCD Soundsystem, whom I'm not enthusiastic about despite buying their CD. That said, M.I.A. looked hot—both heat-wise, as she remarked at least once how hot it was up there (did nobody yell out "then take off all your clothes" because I certainly thought it) and looks-wise—and she and her hype-girl (!) looked like they were having fun. The hype-girl confined her singing and rapping to the chorus, which is a refreshing change from, say, Dizzee Rascal's hype-man. Highlights for me were "Pop" (the 'hidden' track on Arular) done à la the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix tape; "ya ya heyyy" at the end of "Galang" (I was definitely not alone in thinking that); M.I.A.'s dancing in between tracks; and finally, you haven't lived until you've heard a song like "Bucky Gun Done" on twenty-foot speakers. She could use some polish in her performance, but she clearly has a lot of fun doing it. Lowlights were Diplo in general. Dude's girlfriend is hot, but his mixing is shit.
The show, in short, is not worth paying some 80 dollars to attend, but it was definitely worth the price of the individual ticket.
ha! too bad! M.I.A. was gre
pinder — Tue, 2005-05-10 22:19ha! too bad! M.I.A. was great! even her shitty dancing (which I love). LCD Soundsystem was even fucking better. I think you woulda stayed if you knew that keyboardist is a hot asian chic.
Plus I got to meet M.I.A.! She was walking around Futureshop a couple hours before the show.
I agree with pinder, LCD Soun
fil — Thu, 2005-05-12 07:29I agree with pinder, LCD Soundsytem was ridiculously good.
Jeebus! You should've seen wh
Pete — Thu, 2005-05-12 17:33Jeebus! You should've seen what it was like in the pit during LCD. Everyone was going nuts... like what you might see if a mosh pit turned into a rave. It was a writhing, sweaty orgy of beautiful bodies, getting our brains funked out by the band till they brought us all to an ear-splitting, ass-blasting orgasm with the climax of 'Yeah'! That cigarette afterwards was great.
I seriously haven't witnessed a booty-shaking fest like that in a while. Where EVERYONE was boogie-ing. I was soaked.
Then there was M.I.A. who almost broke my shit with her banging-ass beats.
It was a double-whammy that will be hard to beat. Best of 2005, so far.
(random commenter) I really l
Krupa — Thu, 2005-07-14 09:39(random commenter) I really like M.I.A., but the only thing that bugs me about her is how she's a really bad performer. I really hope she improves on it quick because when I first saw her Galang video, I thought that she was such a bad performer that I stopped watching it, but later watched it again because I was bored and realized that I loved the song. And her boyfriend is so hot. haha