After undergoing the most severe of airport style security checks and narrowly avoiding a full cavity search, I entered the new O2 Indigo arena. By far the most corporate of gig venues I've ever been to.
On stepping into the venue Pendulum was in full swing (no pun intended) of his drum and bass/break beat set, which felt somewhat out of place amidst the rather clinical environment (perhaps due to the lack of smoke and general grime expected at a D & B gig). It also felt strange listening to this genre (at 8 o'clock in the evening) whilst it was still daylight outside. Pendulum left the stage to a mere patter of applause and grumbles from the crowd. A disappointing start to the evening.
The lack of enthusiasm (apart from the dozen or so hardcore fans) seeped over to Dj Shadow's entry onto the stage, where he was greeted with a half-arsed response from the mixture of suits and students that lined the venue.
After reading out to the crowd a rather negative newspaper cutting regarding tonight’s gig, Shadow exclaimed defiantly 'you want another Entroducing...but you're never gunna get it’. Despite this comment, he proceeded to leap into a string of tracks from Entroducing (his debut, and most successful '96 album), which was well received by the audience.
However, by the time he reached 'Building Steam with a Grain of Salt' (one of the most darkly hypnotic tracks from the album) the crowd looked noticeably bored and as the line 'what you gon' do now?' boomed out, the audience seemed to respond by either heading to the loo, or the bar.
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The highlight of the evening came when Blackalicious' Gift of Gab (one of modern hip-hop greatest MC’s) made a surprise appearance on stage, impressing the crowd with a seamless version of 'alphabet aerobics'.
It was hard for Shadow to conclude the set solo after such a charismatic performance, but he managed to grab the audiences attention back by playing some more soulful tracks from the recent album ''The Outsider'. Which were accompanied by some cleverly synchronized and effective visuals.
All in all, shadow played an energetic and varied set consisting predominantly of early and new material (and little from the albums in between). But it was a good mixture of tracks for his last UK gig this year. Sadly, it was the London crowd that let the side down - failing to give him the warm reception he deserved.
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