Steve Earle Remixed?
Last night was my first chance to catch Steve Earle in concert. Not surprisingly the show at the Bronson Centre was sold out. I’d caught highlights of a couple of Earle shows on TV and thought I had a pretty good grasp on what was going to happen last night. Boy was I wrong!
I knew something was off when I arrived. Dan, a buddy of mine was already at the show and had been in and mentioned when I got there that he noticed a bunch of turntables on the stage. I thought perhaps he was mistaken and the turntables were actually a sound board or at the very least the turntables would be used as an intro or perhaps play tunes before Steve took the stage. Not the case.
The show seemed like what I’d seen on tv for the better part of an hour or so. Then out of no where this guy walks on stage as Steve was starting a tune and started playing some “beats” on the turntables. I like everyone else at the show chuckled out loud and thought this is where he would make fun of hip hop…but he didn’t…instead he half smirked and continued with his song. Then another set to some jungle beats and another and another until we all realized Steve wasn’t fooling around with the record scratching.
The weirdest thing is… it was actually very good. I would say of all the tunes he did with the DJ accompanying him 80% were great while 20% he should’ve left for the dance club. I’m sure purests will tell you they hated the hip hop stuff…and I thought I’d be one of them when it started..but I’m not.
Now since this was my first Earle concert perhaps he’s being doing this at his shows for a while and for some reason no one’s mentioned it. So did I miss a memo or was this something new for Steve Earle?
March 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
that is amazing! i would love to see that live