I saw her on Friday night, and she was extremely disappointing. I guess their plane got delayed, so we waited sooooo long for her to come on -- it was supposed to start at 9, and instead started at something like 12 or 12:15. We actually went to a party for a while then came back. They didn't get a proper sound check, so the sound was absolutely horrible. They put this super echo on her voice that sounded terrible. She was only on for about a half hour, and the whole show was half-assed and she didn't perform well.

Factoring out all the problems they had, it still seemed like nothing was gained from the live experience, which is always disappointing. I definitely think less of a band/musician who sucks live, to the point of me not really caring about them anymore.

this makes me feel a lot better about not going to her show with lcd soundsystem on thursday. i know people who've never even heard either that are apparently amped about it. fuck 'em.

shit, i want to go on thursday....what to do....what to do....ugh

I wouldn't assume this is a true representation of her live show since it sounds like the deck was stacked against her to begin with. With rap especially, sound balance is vital, and throw in the bad circumstances... don't close the book on her yet.

She's opening for LCD Soundsystem here on Friday and I'll report back then. I've heard nothing but good about both acts on this tour, so I'm really looking forward to it.

she was awesome at coachella and had the crowd going nuts. after people were cheering for an encore and she came out again and did one. there is never an encore on a side stage at coachella.

unfortunately i didn't go to last night's show w/lcd in la, but from what i heard it was good.

Very interesting about MIA. I really don't know what to expect. I'm more than curious though to see how she sounds. I'll give my thoughts on Friday after Thursday's show.

so i feel like there should be a thusday night obner meet up....maybe not?

i've never seen a rap show that wasn't average or worse.
i know she's not really rap, but might as well be.

Case in point, Magnolia Electric Co., sadly.

Whatever, I'll still see M.I.A. on Saturday, but I'm not paying, granted.

And I imagine she didn't sell a whole lot of her record that is stiffing famously in stores. What an amazing flop, considering the endless hype.

I had quite a few friends go to last night's show and it was unanimous, she wasn't all that great. LCD, on the other hand, were reported to be quite fantastic.

Agreed.

As a general rule, this is right on. The only two exceptions in my memory are Ice-T and Jurassic 5.

Jurassic 5
Blackalicious (or any Quannum act, pretty much)
Public Enemy
Dizzee Rascal
The Roots
OutKast
Beastie Boys

All of them bring it live.
I'm resisting the urge to go on a Whiney-level tirade.

MIA is a charismatic art student with great producers. who ever said she could perform?

I saw Wu-Tang once and that was the only rap show I've seen that was tolerable.

i was just going to say that latyrx/blackalicious were both good, but that Dalek does the best live show of anything that i've seen tangentially related to hip-hop. actually i think that Dalek does the best show that i've ever seen period, but that's just me.

I think I'm gonna go see shows by Buckshot with Smif N Wessun and Immortal Technique next month. I might not make it back from the 2nd show.

buckshot is playing in DC with GZA next wednesday but i don't think that i'm going to make it. please tell me that it sucked when you get back.

I'll try...but it's Buckshot, ya know?

hey fancypants,

one of the prefix writers posted a review at prefixblog.com about the same show. really seemed like a crappy time. here is the review if interested.
http://prefixmag.typepad.com/prefixmag_ ... _neve.html

i littlerally nodded off at a jurassic 5 show once.

I have seen J5 twice, and both times it was just okay. Not bad, but not amazing either. Outkast was not that impressive live. The roots were a little more interesting, since they seemed to have more to offer in the way of drumming, etc. Cypress hill was meh, but they had a really good bongo drummer with them. There are a ton of others that were just meh. Come to think of it, the only live rap show I really liked was clouddead.

what we do live (freeway, jay-z)

also jay-z unplugged is ace

that was pretty awesome, for a few reasons:

1. the roots without any of the roots rapping.
2. ONE MIC - - at too many rap shows every dude and his brother has a mic and all you hear is a muddled mess.
3. Jay Z is awesome and has lots of great songs.
4. they had the benefit of doing lots of set up and getting all the levels right.