M.I.A. and DJ Rekha spin, grind and wobble at a free concert in Central Park, August 7 at 3pm (thanks, Anna). The suspiciously absent-as-of-late Diplo is still on the bill.
It’s an odd combination, electrogrime and Rekha, and a long way from Simon and Garfunkel and Strawberry Fields. But if the show draws hipsters shedding layers of snitty reserve to blog archly about it later, it’ll rock as hard as the Knitting Factory. And once my fellow bhangraleros arrive, it’ll be ebony ‘n ivory all over again — carefully mussed shabby chic versus the authentically disheveled 😉
I can get squeaky so she can come and oil me at:
Central Park SummerStage is… at Rumsey Playfield… on East 72nd Street off Fifth Avenue… enter the park on 69th Street and 5th Avenue.Entrance to the SummerStage area begins 90 minutes before the shows start on weekends, and 60 minutes before for weeknight performances… If you’re not into battling crowds and are content to just hear the music, there is plenty of space on the grass outside of the SummerStage area. From there, you can easily hear the concert while lounging on the grass. [About.com]
Also, Missy Elliott gets ‘hur’ freak on with everyone’s favorite Salt ‘n Pepa fan on her new album (via Brooklyn Vegan):
M.I.A.’s… rumored to be on Kanye’s upcoming Late Registration… [and] has a guest spot on the last track of the new Missy Elliott joint, The Cookbook. The cut, “Bad Man”, also features Vybz Cartel and was produced by Missy herself. [Pitchfork]
yes — reviews please! for those of us stuck in the mofussil.
peace
Uh, ok. I’m procrastinating again, so why not start the review process 🙂
(I wanted to see what others had to say before I stomp in with my ponderous Sri Lankan perspective, but will try to dish the good bits only here.)
So DJ Rekha starts. She’s my girl so I’m biased. Summerstage was so fucking packed! I’ve never seen a line that long for a show there before! They actually reached maximum capacity before MIA came on.
Rekha mixed it up with Bhangra, dancehall, some hip-hop, and really cheekily, a few baile funk songs at the end. (baile funk being Diplo’s thing, but more on that soon.)
Next, Mr. Vegas, who has the most ripped torso I’ve seen on a real person. As opposed to a picture, I mean. His songs weren’t particularly memorable, but he had a good selector who played some dancehall classics old and new, and Mr. Vegas basically did the Beanie Man, etc parts.
sidenote: Someone took a flash pic that distracted him, and when he said some thing about it, security swarmed on the guy trying to confisicate it or thrown him out of something. Mr. V leaped off the stage, jumped between the guards and the offender and taking the camera away from teh guards said, “here bwoy, put dat ting away now, in your backpack or someting,” and with lots of “Iss cool, man”s to the guards, got people into some throw your hands in the air chant. the whole thing took less that 2 minutes and he never lost the crowd. Consummate pro.)
Back to the show – Diplo next. He said he was going to slow things down so the crowd could save their energy for MIA. It was hot as hell, but I dunno if that was a good idea since his set was surprisingly boring. He didn’t play any baile funk until the very end. His known for his mashups, but they didn’t go over very well..I guess the crown wasn’t feeling “walks like an Egyptian” mashing into anything. I can’t say I blame them..it was sort of wrong for the vibe. He played tribe’s “electric relaxation” and other songs that are good, but, done, you know? We’ve all been listening to this since college, and wanted to hear something new. Too bad he didn’t play more baile funk. He also played his remix of “hollerback girl” but I was getting food then, so I dunno what the crowd thought of it.
Ok, MIA. They unfurled a full legnth banner behind her – the cover of the galang 12″ basically – and brought out some sort of paper mache helicoptor on a ~12′ pole, cardboard palm trees, and you guessed it – a 3’x6′ cardboard TIGER.
Her backups came out wearing the daisiest of daisy dukes, trainers, and …can you guess?…cartoony tiger and cheetah print bodysuits. Some cow behind me said “is that MIA? Is she black? I didn’t know she was black,” when she saw Cherry.
I grit my teeth as the two girl pranced out to the edge of the stage and gave military salutes. Lots of booty/marching dance steps followed.
MIA wore blue lace calf-legnth leggings with a large belted crazy color top, piles of bracelets and hoop earings the diameter of hubcabs. With a high sideways ponytail to top it off. I don’t know how she does it, but she looked really really cute.
Ay.. this is getting long..sorry! To speed up :
I don’t like her new DJ guy. He played instrumentals of songs previous DJs had already played behind her…dumbass. “Amazon” was totally ruined that way. The crowd ate up everything. I was scowling at first, then got teary, then started chanting along and bouncing, then felt a headache comming on. I’m becomming my mother.
I was really surprised at how many people knew all the words. really! It was a special moment for disenfranchised women when she held the mic to an audience of hipsters who chanted back “I can get squeeky so you can come and oil me” during ‘Hombre.” My jaw is bruised from dropping.
She saved “Galang” for last. Crowd went crazy. She emerges for an encore, with a full costume change (dancers too) in less than 5 minutes. She really is amazing. Same leggings with cute tweedy looking shift dress with purple sleeves. Really low in the back, and her bra strap was (green) was brazenly visible. I have no idea how she pulls this off, but I really want to know. Backup singers in metallic bodysuits. Finishes with “URQT” and “BINGO.”
She switched “Bucky Done Gun” lyrics to “Brooklyn quiten down/ Central Park quiten down” Also got Manhattan and Queens. Not bad, I think. I’d heard that she was a lackluster performer, but she certainly proved that wrong. Great energy, great rapport with the dancers, very very cute.
Now if only I can figure what a guy playing tabla was doing onstage and who he is, my review will be complete.
Oh! She got a stage jumper! Tall skinny bleached hair white dude wearing what looked like small, wet, clingy board shorts. Started grinding up against the backdancers until security hauled him offstage. Pretty impressive actually since security was tight, and no one saw him get up there.
Sorry if this is heavy on the fashion tip and less on whatever else you wanted to know about. Just ask.
the one time i saw her here in DC, she was AMAZING. easily one of the best shows i’ve ever been to, and i saw the pixies final night in manhattan…
damn. i wish i could’ve made it up to ny for this. cicatrix, i’m grateful you reviewed it for us. reading your comment is just getting me more fired up for her next DC show– sept 21. i’ve got my tickets…what about the rest of you? 🙂
great review cicatrix, nuff respect.
and she certainly wasn’t lackluster when she performed up here a couple of months ago. she destroyed the spot! i don’t care if she’s overplayed or politically tendentious, i’m feeling her.
peace
I was about 50 people in the line behind the cut-off, and I couldn’t get in.
That’s ok, had a nice afternoon in NY anyway (ran into some old friends etc)
Thanks Cicatrix for the review. I’m bummed I missed it…
I was there, stage right for most of the show. I actually saw the guy jump over the barrier and climb on stage. MIA looked surprised then smiled, because he obviously wasn’t a threat. The security guards got very tense at first, then relaxed. Two guys sauntered up to the stage and led him off. I think they escorted him out of the venue, though I saw him outside afterwards. Everyone seemed very amused. “New York!” said one of the dancers.
photos of it all at http://www.flickr.com/photos/atticusny/sets/719500
Great review + pix everyone!
ok, this thread is probably dead as you guys have all been to see the amazing concert by now. Well, I just wanted to share my sheer joy at finding so much background info on Mia (I love her songs!). I also had a brilliant time reading all the rants back and forth. Thank you Google for taking me here. Wish I could have seen the concert in real life too.
Regards from Camilla in Oslo, Norway