[phlipcam video] SBTRKT + Willis Earl Beal @ the Paradise
It's
impossible to not move at a SBTRKT show. Trust me, I tried. Just last night,
in fact, as I showed up to a sardine'd-the-fuck-out Paradise, more
prepared to slink around the back of the venue than I was for the eventual
adrenaline bump I would receive. I hadn't slept well Tuesday night, worked a full day
yesterday, and wanted to lean right up against one of those obtuse
poles, close my eyes, and take a quick five.
My
sluggish demeanor was quick to shed however, once the fledgling Brit
producer and his frequent collaborator Sampha took the stage, adorning
odd blindfold-like cover-ups on their foreheads -- no doubt an homage to
the full-scaled tribal mask
that has become his forte. Not too long into their set, it became clear
why they kept their costumes light. The two bounce around -- a lot --
whipping each song up from a bare-bones drum kick into something
altogether different.
Here's
how it went down: they'd trigger a pre-programmed beat, then SBTRKT
would jump on the drums, building to a distant peak before Sampha would
cut in with his sultry croon, and I'd start simultaneously melting and
shimmying like I'd just found love on the dancefloor. Then they'd chop
the music into a million glimmering diamonds and SBTRKT would tweak the
theremin (yes, they had a theremin) and I'd spin around in half-circles and
lose my shit.
And
as much as I'm sure they like to consider themselves a team package --
SBTRKT even ended the night by pronouncing "we're SBTRKT" -- it was
really the Sampha show. Despite the fact that the highlight in
regards to room energy was "Wildfire" (a song he doesn't feature on), he
still managed to make the night his own, in terms of both stage presence and
delivery. If we lived in a country that had some semblance of a
mainstream R&B scene outside of "bubblegum" territory, I'd say he's
poised to blow. But alas.
On
the opposite end of the R&B spectrum was the night's opener, WILLIS
EARL BEAL. Neither sultry, nor shimmering, the Chicago
singer-songwriter came across as downright testy, even going as far as
to implore one audience member calling for SBTRKT to "shut the fuck up."
His backstory
is what initially roped me into his music, and his recently released
debut is sufficiently bizarre, but at least to me, this seemed like a
case of a misbilling. Perhaps the most egregious I've ever witnessed.
They share the same label and that's probably to blame, but his tape
loops and billowing howl went nowhere in a room mostly packed with
college kids eager to get down. Something goes right, something goes wrong, I suppose.