words by Abby
updated pics by Josh Sisk - http://www.joshsisk.com
Went to Taxlo at Sonar last night to see MIA. I was in town visiting friends who recently moved to Baltimore from NYC. I’m stoked to have an excuse now to get to know the city a bit more; so far all I really know is homicide and crab cakes. I was at a conference here a few weeks ago, and I was chatting with one of the hotel staff about Baltimore and he goes,
“you know what they call us in DC?” and gave me a look, “…bammas, that’s what.”
then I laughed shrilly and ran when he turned away.
The scene last night, however, did little to alleviate my apprehension about the city. I heard they only added this show to the tour like a week ago, Baltimore being a perpetual afterthought to the rest of the country. MIA was late, they were still sound checking when we showed up an hour after doors, and there was a line of shivering kids around the block.
Once inside, I caught the last couple tracks of the ‘Cool Kids’ opening. they looked like Kid and Play in hypercolor caps with stiff bills turned up and bright white high-tops, and they sounded like old school De la soul but lines like “if you’re ugly keep your hands by your side/but if you wanna party put em up to the sky.” I was in line for the restroom and I asked the girl behind me who they were, and she scowls and says “its not MIA. this is, like, regular hip hop.”
The venue seemed so full past capacity that without trying, the crowd around me found ourselves pressed up to each other closer than horny Wilson high schoolers at fort Reno. Can someone explain to me the surging, shoving thing that seems to always happen in the front at all ages shows. like, you’re not quite fearless enough to actually mosh, but you’re going to throw your body against my chest, then quit for a minute and look around at me all wild-eyed, like “its sure getting crazy in here!” and then repeat. Fuck all y’all.
Blaqstar came on next and was majorly disappointing. He sounded like he would be a good backup to someone like Kanye, but alone he was just wearisome. Insipid lyrics like “wanna bang, wanna bang, shorty make me wanna bang…” repeated ad nauseum wore thin pretty quickly, and people around me were actually booing and making the thumbs down motion. One girl even got up on someone’s shoulders and was yelling “you suck” and flipping him off.
On his last track, the DJ got the crowd all hyped into overdrive, like they were going to go straight into MIA’s set and the kids nearly rioted. But instead they made us wait around for a half an hour. I was mindlessly watching this pack of girls near me as one pulled a Corona out of her purse and they all stood around trying to twist off the cap. After about 10 minutes of fumbling, one takes out a lighter and attempts to pry off the cap by pushing it straight up from underneath while the others ducked for cover. So like any good Samaritan stopping to help a citizen in distress, I kindly tap her on the shoulder and offer my expert bottle opening skills. it’s not until I pass her back the bottle that I notice the big black ‘x’ on their hands and I mentally slap my forehead and scan the crowd for security coming to evict my retarded ass.
Then MIA finally came on, and she is hot like whoa. She looked like old school Madonna with messy highlighted curls and big silver ray bans. After a bit she took off this slouchy sweatshirt, revealing white glittery hot pants and a white vest with an open back over a skin tight shiny orange and purple leopard print bodysuit, topped with a captain’s hat with a red feather. She took off her sunglasses, and her eyelids were caked in silver glitter. When the opening beats of ‘bamboo banger’ came blaring out, she jumped up on a speaker right in front of me, and I immediately fagged out and died.
She did a fair mix of tracks from the old and new albums. Before I wasn’t feeling the new album entirely, but performed live with all her energy, it felt different, more like a Bollywood film than a hip hop concert. There was video looping on the screen behind the stage of a bunch of African boys doing traditional dances in front of a background of the same seizure-inducing florescent patterns from the cover of ‘Kala.’ in the middle of the set, she brought out guest mc Rye Rye with a couple kids as backup dancers who proceeded to walk it out like the little MJ wannabes from the ‘Badder’ video.
By the end of the show, the crowd had thrown me back up nearly to the front row. I was sweating like Pete Doherty and I had some dude’s elbow in my sternum, but fuck was it fun. MIA finished with an encore of ‘Galang’ and ‘paper planes,’ demanding “Baltimore, put your cell phones up for this one!” the city obliged and, fittingly, she went out in a hail of gunshots.
The review is fine, but would have been better without the horrible quality photos, not even worth putting up, IMO. you guys normally have such high quality images that this just looks sloppy.
December 3, 2007 at 1:44 pmDear byt,
Buy me a camera.
Love
We didn’t have a photographer available for the show, if someone wants to donate some pics let us know at info@brightestyoungthings.com, thanks.
December 3, 2007 at 1:50 pmI never understood taking pictures of artists to accompany reviews in the first place. I mean what does it add to a review? If you want pictures try images.google.com (here: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=M.I.A.&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2 I did it for you).
I mean pictures of your friends at shows or of dance parties and such are fine, but pictures of someone standing on a stage doesn’t tell me dick about the show. It’s just a picture of someone standing on a stage.
December 3, 2007 at 2:05 pmBao has offered his non-shitty pics as well from a completely different MIA show, just pretend:
http://flickr.com/photos/joshsisk/sets/72157603353620144/
pictures from the MIA show at Taxlo/Sonar friday. more to come. if BYT wants to use them, feel free, just keep my watermark and link to joshsisk.com please.
December 3, 2007 at 2:23 pmim confused what about the show in DC!
it was truly heaven on earth, why are we talking about baltimore aka americas armpit.
December 3, 2007 at 2:32 pmI took the night off between DC and Philly, so I didn’t catch this Bodymore performance, but the Philly show blew the roof off of the DC show. When Santogold, Spank Rock, Pase Rock, Amanda Blank, Rye Rye, and Diplo all show up at your show, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a banger. When Diplo and Pase Rock take over the reigns from the already more than competent Low B, shit’s just straight raw.
The only downside was that it was an unbelievably young crowd. I’m 25, and I actually felt old even in the bar area - crammed up against the crush of humanity on the main flow, I felt downright dirty. That was a shame, because the high school kids weren’t really on top of the spank/pase/blank sound, so they didn’t get the showcase they deserved. Also, the kids were so inured to encores that they didn’t even seem to realize that you’re supposed to clap a little just to pretend that you don’t know they’re coming back.
All the same, it was live. As MIA said, there’s no saying when she’ll get a visa to get back in, so you’d better get down while she’s around.
December 3, 2007 at 2:45 pmAttn: Baltimore
RE: Played Out
Message: You are no longer cooler than DC, sorry.
Great report, sorry about how you died. I LOVE the quote from the Bmore kids about Hiphop vs MIA, very telling of the attitude in that city these days.
December 3, 2007 at 3:31 pmI was at the Bmore show and maybe I’m just old but it was a really young crowd. Also, I’m not sure about the DC crowd or the Philly crowd but there were some surriously skanky looking females there. Often wearing clothing that amounted to a little bit more than handkerchiefs wrapped around their body. I thought all the strip clubs and stuff were like two streets over. And it ain’t like it was warm outside either.
Also Pedro, B’more was NEVER cooler than DC. There’s a reason it’s cheaper to live there… (so glad I moved back to DC.)
December 3, 2007 at 4:41 pmlots of people from this show were from out of town, or at least people who never go to sonar. i walked the length of the (wrapped around the block) line and i did not see many familiar faces, and i have been at taxlo almost every friday in the past year taking photos of people, so i am dece at recognizing faces… this show brought people either from out of town, or from out of the woodwork.
December 3, 2007 at 4:43 pmSmerg, Pedro, other haters: are you guys serious? M.I.A. plays a show with an independent promoter for the lowest ticket price on the tour and all you can do is make petty remarks about the age of the crowd? I made it all ages because i didn’t think it was fair to exclude her fans when all the surrounding shows were sold out. My life would have been a lot different if i wasn’t allowed to see Public Enemy when i was 15.
The reason M.I.A. was late, and this show was added so late, wasn’t because it was an afterthought, but because she had to play two gigs that day. She had to record for NPR in Philly that afternoon. She went from DC, to Philly, back to Baltimore, then back to Philly. Everybody involved bent over backwards in order to make this show happen.
We did this with no corporate money and no sponsors, even though people threw cash in our faces.
Realize that when you talk trash you decay the foundation that allows fun things to happen in the first place. It’s cool to be critical, in fact it’s important, but don’t poison the fucking air. Unless you want the world of music to continue its current path of corporate monopolization and vapidity, selling overpriced products to the lowest common denominator - in which case, please continue!
December 3, 2007 at 5:13 pmalso, reggie and i have had this conversation before but baltimore and dc are just a lot different. dc is definitely more upscale, but because of that it’s harder for smaller projects/venues to take root and thrive. look at what happened to the warehouse cafe/nextdoor. it would be alot harder for 2640 space, velocipede, lo-fi, CCAS, metro, red emmas, etc to exist in DC. and i can’t think of anything like the copycat building or the H&H in dc that is such a nexus point for creative people doing crazy stuff. the counter point is that there isn’t a big venue on the level and professionalism of a 9:30 club. for my money though, i prefer a lot of smaller, more diy venues with more going on than a few bigger venues with marquee artists.
that said, i know about newer spaces in dc like BORF on n capital… i hope it can last and other projects like that pop up in the capital city!
December 3, 2007 at 5:31 pmfor the record, i never said anything about the age of the crowd or how late she was (she performed around the same time at the 930 show so i didnt care nor do i ever care about timeliness at shows.) i could care less if someone is 12 at a show with me, as long as they are not douchebags. i was young too –and still consider myself young– so im for all ages shows. douchebags can be any age, and for the most part the dbs present seemed to be around the same age as me. i thought m.i.a. was great, BUT i feel her performances also depend on how the crowd is. the crowd in baltimore sucked making the show lamer than it couldve been. i do not think that moshing is cool at an m.i.a. show and you should save the crowdsurfing for when you find a way to time travel to hfstival say ten years ago. i also hate having to stand next behind tall dumbass people who during the whole beginning video have to shout “OH MY GOD IM SO BORED YEAH THIS IS SO INTERESTING” as if they ever in their lives have been interesting. sure im hating, but not against m.i.a. or the fact that its all ages. just against sucky people in general. thanks.
December 3, 2007 at 5:53 pm“I went to a show with 1200 people and they weren’t all as cool as me”
December 3, 2007 at 6:05 pmpics updated to Josh’s non-shitty ones - thanx!
ps. i have no problem with baltimore :-)
December 3, 2007 at 6:20 pmOh and the little kid dancers were Rye Rye’s little sisters. They are awesome.
December 3, 2007 at 6:34 pmKeeping this short.
Cullen… great rebuttal to the original poster.
Josh… great pictures and also great comments about the diff. of dc and baltimore. pretty much the reason why i moved up here.
Please people stop hating on baltimore. Like Cullen said, the negative energy does nothing for the “scene.
Arrrgggg I don’t know what to say as this will turn into an “e-argument” and you know what they say about those… (let’s say it all together)
“In the end we are still all retarded”
yes i know its played out… but got dammit is it good. hollers.
-DLake
December 3, 2007 at 9:43 pmI am a hater. M.I.A. sucks. I do, however, love Baltimore. Nothing I like better than sitting on my friend’s porch in Hamden in the heat of July drinking beers and heckling prozzies and thug white boys in white t-shirts down to their knees.
And I’m being deadly serious. I like that shit. DC isn’t “upscale.” DC just has money. There’s a huge difference in having money and being upscale.
December 3, 2007 at 11:23 pmI agree. Baltimore may not be the sterile, money toting city with its themed bars and large venues, but that doesn’t mean it sucks. I’ve lived in both cities. The show was fun, and because its such a neighborhood-feeling city it makes everyone feels like they are included in the fun, instead of a select few.
December 4, 2007 at 12:09 amI don’t care that the show started at 12. I heard the DC show started just as late. It just felt like a typical weirdo TAXLO crowd. And regardless of whether or not you prefer B-more or DC the show was pretty tight (except for all the pushing.) But me and my companion just slipped over to the side and had a good time. Don’t wanna get into a big us vs. them battle here. M.I.A. throws a good party and that’s all that matters.
December 4, 2007 at 1:22 amAlso, I’m glad Josh’s pics ended up here. Great work as usual.
December 4, 2007 at 1:24 amBut I liked the fuzzy pics!!!!
December 4, 2007 at 1:29 amBaltimore needs to get with the smoking ban and keep the bars open til at least 3, then we can talk.
December 4, 2007 at 1:56 amWell just wait 27 more days and your wish will come true.
December 4, 2007 at 3:12 amI really really like Baltimore:
http://scoot.net/gallery/2006/05/charmcity/Scott_from_Baltimore/index.html?page=2
http://scoot.net/gallery/2006/05/charmcity/JBoney/
http://scoot.net/gallery/2006/05/charmcity/intensified/
December 4, 2007 at 11:23 amthere is a lot of white privilege in this article.
that said, the show was announced at the exact same time as M.I.A.’s featured spot as MTV’s artist of the week. any more fucking questions?
December 4, 2007 at 11:41 amThe sr biz in the replies makes me feel bad about my flippancy. I lived in bmore for a long time and went to Taxlo a bunch back when it was at the Talking Head. It’s just that the scene there now feels like everyone takes themselves way seriously. It’s not the underdog anymore, lots of bands stop there and NOT in DC, kids are moving there from Brooklyn, houses cost dollars instead of pesos, etc.
But Cullen: props for setting up the show. Let’s not call it hate–call it a friendly rivalry as to which city can be more DIY and innovative in battling the bullshit. Hi-5!
December 4, 2007 at 1:32 pmLest anyone start thinking anywhere in the US is hip:
http://funfever.blogspot.com/2007/11/taiwans-modern-toilet-restaurant.html
Just try opening that restaurant here.
December 4, 2007 at 1:33 pmyeah smoking ban takes effect in bmore on jan 1 2008. will be interesting to see how it goes. i doubt bars will stay open til 3am though. a few years ago they tried to make powerplant live be able to stay open til 4 or 5 am but it didn’t make it out of committee or whatever the phrase is when something doesnt happen in the city council.
December 4, 2007 at 4:19 pmThis show was ok once M.I.A. came on. The girls in Bmore are skanks. I almost got man raped in the front and had to take a breather from making out with chicks towards the end.
If it wasn’t for the smoke I’d probably consider going back just to be around people who don’t know me.
December 4, 2007 at 9:39 pmwell i was one of the “skanky girls wearing a hankerchief” there in the right picture in the center, and lets just say it was a very good decision considering i knew how hot it would get… really it was the best choice i could’ve made. i don’t do sweaty too well.
despite the obnoxious pushing from which i have HUGE bruises, it was still amazingly fun. M.I.A kicked ass there and in DC.
December 4, 2007 at 11:25 pmWow i can’t believe how many people who say sexist bullshit about ’skanks’ and ’sluts’ came to an M.I.A. show. Clearly we have an uphill battle ahead of us.
But to everyone who had an awesome time and a positive attitude… props!
December 10, 2007 at 4:26 pm
i swear that show was full of the biggest douchebags baltimore had to offer. it seemed like everyone was way more into shoving and being a general asshole instead of dancing their ass off as they should have been doing. the 930 show crowd was way more fun and didnt have tall losers bending over drunkenly saying “i dont know who he is but he is fucking hottt” as you tried to squeeze away from them.
December 3, 2007 at 1:38 pm