I am wondering if FatBoy Slim's intoxicatingly addictive personal energy of sheer positivity and joy can be bottled? As far as I am concerned the man is drug and once you have understood his approach to music you are hooked for life. A friend of mine gave me a live FatBoy Slim mix and after 3 straight run trough's I fell in love. I had to see him in person, but he has not made it to NYC till last night...
His stage presence is delirious... he lives music, he feels it so humanely deep that as a listener you have no other choice but to be swept into his hurricane of blissful insanity. He is a lightning jolt of freedom, happiness, creativity and above all authenticity. The man is fearlessly true to himself, unafraid of taking chances and it shows...
His appearance at Terminal 5 last night proves that 1,500 people can be mobilized on a Wednesday night, but you have to be FatBoy Slim to pull it off!
Terminal 5 is old club Exit and despite bad reviews I have seen elsewhere, the sound was impeccable. I did not hear a single mistake in the sound system, not an echo, not a faulty speaker, not one distortion. Perfectly proportional to the space and robust, full range sound. Pretty sure that FatBoy Slim's sound engineer had something to do with it because there was a second sound check right before he started playing. I have nothing to say about Shinicho Osawa as I only heard 5 minutes of his set, found it absolutely toxic to my ears and was happy when it was over.
10 minute pause for sound check before Norman Cook appeared on stage gave the audience the tease of anticipation and enough time to get ready to be swept away. We were all fully aroused by the time he did appear and from the first beat he and the crowd were in sync.
He started with Praise You clearly paying homage to all his fans, gesticulating his appreciation of the crowd with his hands; he made it well understood that we were loved, cherished and about to be taken on a treat of a trip. The crowd was soon drenched in glow of cosmic lights plus strobe and the 3D images projected on a screen behind him gave plenty of ponderous moments.
His talent goes way beyond mixing, he is a delightful energy transmitter surely connected to the spirit or cosmos or whatever you want to call it. Although his mixing is not always perfect, his creativity makes up for any flubs. He played a part of Thriller behind some jungle of beats never letting it escape into the vocal part and quickly switching to something else. His style of playing was an extended mash up if I can call it that, with high energy throughout and vocals for respite.
He played all his classics: Right here right now, Put your hand up in the air, Weapon of choice, He's Frank by Iggy Pop, Rockafeller Scank and then there were a few surprises: Let me clear my throat by DJ Kool and Back to Life by Sol II Sol, which he played while dancing infectiously himself. And what a dancer!
The real highlight of his set was a surprising choice of El Mariachi song from Desperado, it was so unexpected that the crowd went complete bananas and seeing it he played it twice back to back. Hands in the air the whole night, digital camera flashes adding to strobe lights, Christopher Walken video and many interesting 3D projections, everyone singing along non stop...
He closed his set with Praise You completing the circle of love and did not play an encore even though the crowd was vehemently demanding one by chanting his name. I must add that the crowd was the most cool and down to earth kind, super polite. FatBoy Slim takes the crown for originality and authenticity, I am inexplicably enchanted with his brand of delirious magic.
I am tempted to call him a Wizard but he is way beyond that; he is the Alchemist whose experiments of taking the party energy to the next level are often explosive and that is why is he so loved and honored by fans and peers worldwide.
It is possible to fill a blank?
ReplyDelete