Last week I was in Portland, Oregon for work, one of my favourite cities in America. It’s clean, pretty, full of hipsters, void of sales tax and has the most micro-breweries and strips clubs per capita. I mean, what’s not to love? On my last night I found out that A-Trak was playing at a tiny venue downtown Portland. I also found out he was playing at a venue with a capacity of 200. This is important to note since A-Trak is scheduled to play at the Guvernment in Toronto, a venue that holds 10,000. I repeat, 200 vs. 10,000.
This is A-trak’s Magic 8 Ball tour, as such there were a few people opening for him. First was Gaslamp Killer, the only way to describe this DJ is a Muppet crossed with Sideshow Bob…on caffeine pills (a la Jessie Spano from Saved By the Bell). I don’t know how much he actually did up there musically aside from adjusting the volume a few times. Other than that he was very entertaining, he spun a lot of Beatles tunes and danced like Jessie Spano on caffeine pills before Zack Morris intervened and saved the day.
Next up were Billy Joy (from Illinois…get it?!?!) and Kid Sister. I had heard of Kid Sister before this night but never cared enough to listen (female rappers aren’t really my thing). She was introduced on stage by Billy Joy (from Illinois) and came adorned in tight clothes, sunglasses and the most blindingly glittered nails I’ve ever seen. Kid Sister had tons of energy, her rhymes were pretty tight and she even brought some ladies on stage to dance with her.
A-Trak arrived on stage just after midnight and by this point the crowd was in quite the frenzy. I don’t know much about DJing but I know that he was quite busy up there with his turntables and laptop. I’ve listened to A-Trak’s mixtapes and his set is not like these hip hop mashups at all: less hip hop, more electronic music. He played a 2.5 hour set and was quite charming when he spoke to the crowd, people loved him.
All in all it was a cool experience seeing a big DJ play in a small venue, but I don’t really enjoy DJ shows, I prefer a good old bands with instruments and stuff.