Recap #1.....LOW END THEORY

After firing these blog posts out on a daily basis for the best part of two weeks I ran out of steam so there will now be several in quick succession clogging up your social media streams.

LOW END THEORY

In the last post I boasted about hiring a Merc and going to the club night Low End Theory. It is the spiritual home of much of the music I have been listening too from LA over the past few years. Residents Gaslamp Killer, Daddy Kev, Nocando, Nobody and D-Styles play hosts to up and coming acts and the occasional massive star every wednesday. They have a podcast thats worth checking out and all the residents release music via the likes of bandcamp and Brainfeeder records, (Flying Lotus's Label)
We stayed at a motel in Chinatown and hitting up an old school Chinatown bar before the gig where we were bought drinks by the only other two customers.
We got to venue, the Airliner, relatively early as I was a wee bit worried it would be busy and we wouldn't get in. It wasn't but I'm glad we went early as it gave us time to grab some food from their kitchen hatch. The food was way better than expected and a decent price.
The Airliner, for a'body back home, is like a cross between Nice and Sleazy's, Glasgow, The Reading Rooms, Dundee and the Ice Factory, Perth except full of Americans.
If you're at all familiar with these dens of debauchery, that I hold dear to my heart as sites of personal gig going significance, you get the idea. It's a wee bit crumbly, there's a kitchen, a bar downstairs, a courtyard with bar and stage and an indoor stage and bar too. The clientele were a friendly mixed bunch of students, hipsters and Hip Hoppers of all ethnicities and ages.
Every act we saw was excellent. The big name resident Gaslamp Killer is the most energetic DJ I've ever seen and tore the place apart with both sets he played. We got to say hello to him at the end of the night and he gave us a couple of stickers and badges (one of which now covers the apple on the back of my lapptop so his puss will glow at folk in coffeeshops).

The guy nearly died in a road accident recently so it was good to see that it's not effected his performance. If you get the chance. Go see him.

Somehow we missed Pyramid Viritra which I was a bit disappointed about but we caught Egyptian Lover's set of 808 produced beats and rhymes which was ace...and as a secret special guest we were treated to a DJ set by the genuine legend Erykha Badu accompanied on bass by Thundercat, a properly amazing musician I have been trying to go see for a few years and have missed every time he's been in Britain for some shitty reason or other.

This photo is ripped off the Low End Facebook page.

Erykha sang over the top of the records she was playing. It was pretty bloody brilliant to see them in such a small crowd. There were some folk genuinely freaking out about it.
Here's an old Badu/Roots track and a Thundercat one. If you don't know them I suggest you have a wee look.

The opportunity to go to this night was one of my main motivating factors in applying for the grant to fund this trip. It didn't disappoint.
I hope to get a club night on the go again in Edinburgh in the spring (I haven't run anything regular since Scribble in Dundee 2006-2008) and watching these guys perform has really inspired me so that when I do I'll play what I want to play the way I want to play it, it wont be for everyone and it wont be this good but if done right I'll be chuffed if I can get a wee crowd of regulars who want to hear new things. On Wednesday I only recognised about three tracks all evening, they really push new sounds and slam them together in a way that works. This was a flawless clubbing experience. I'm dying to go back.