DJ Shadow - Legendary Gig at Brixton Academy | livemusic.fm

This was quite frankly an astonishing gig. Not only was the legendary DJ Shadow in fine fettle, but he also brought along two very entertaining musos to get the crowd going. Starting off with Chris James, who he has worked with recently on The Outsider ('Erase You'), this added a real 'live performance' dimension to what after all is a DJ set (no matter how accomplished Josh Davis is behind the decks!) ... and then he topped this with the appearance of Lateef the Truthspeaker who, as well as doing a couple of tracks from the current album ('Enuff' and 'Motorway') also stepped back in time to get the crowd fired up for the classic Number Song. I just didn't really expect this level of crowd engagement at a DJ Shadow gig! 

However the real star of the evening was the breath-taking video-wall where the crowds were treated with some of the best motion graphics sequences any of us are likely to see - no small wonder, when you saw the credit sequence which contained the names of some of the most celebrated video artists and motion graphics exponents of this new century! This really was a treat - and when perfectly mixed with a great combination of the 'Endtroducing ...' classic tracks such as Mutual Slump, Stem/Long Stem and some more recent material from The Outsider. And just to re-inforce the perfect fusion of creative beats, stunning graphics, new songs and old ( and Mr Davis's own particular energy) the final mix was a monster mash-up of Triplicate/Annihilation/Nursery Rhyme & Rabbit in Your Headlights - truly spectacular. 

What made the gig even better, is that on the way out I was handed a flyer stating that the Brixton dates would be available as an edited Live CD ... and sure enough, after paying 20 quid, a month later a well produced double-cd landed in my letter box which had captured some of the spirit of a great gig by one of the world's best DJs.