Just a Gwai Lo fun within prescribed limits [?]

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.

Douglas Wolk: “Diplo's also got an album of his own, Florida; beyond "Diplo Rhythm," a pastiche of the stuff he spins, it's mostly in palm-to-chin DJ Shadow territory—technically solid, but not bugout-able. His deepest work so far, though, is a mix called Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1: a collaboration with M.I.A., a Sri Lankan British MC-producer-painter who designed the cover of the last Elastica album and dances like a happy spaz in her on-the-cheap video for "Galang." (PFT isn't on any label. You can get it by throwing your hands in the air and hoping somebody tosses you one. M.I.A.'s got an actual album coming out next year, though.) There's some baile funk here too, helpfully labeled as "Baile Funk One," "Two," and "Three"; also some Missy, LL, Cutty Ranks, and a boast of pop catholicism in M.I.A.'s "Fire Fire" that Diplo answers by hooking its beat up with the entire a cappella of the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian."”