You fu*king Jerk!!

So, after many years and missed opportunities, I have finally seen DJ Shadow spin live. And as an added treat, Cut Chemist was there as well. Touring their final leg of the "Hard Sell," I think I chose a good time to finally be available to see them create textured soundscapes to retreat and revel in.

I came a little late to the show because I'm old and tired now after I come back from work. Adulthood really does slow you down a bit. But once I stepped up to the ticket window and picked up my will-calls, I felt young again, rad.

As I stepped through the double doors, there they were, Shadow on the left and Chemist on the right. And in front of them, eight turntables, effect boards galore, and foot pedals to ensure they just would not stand bored with their hands busy.

After a short intro video on the history of the 45, they jumped right in, slowly at first, building and removing, sort of like an architect with a pencil and pad, drawing out designs and modifying and deleting as necessary. It would be a little challenging for some, building and destroying, moving forward and turn back, to the side, up, down, all around. Then, they hit the groove on one record and off we went to music nirvana.

Now, if you haven't seen or listened to their collaborations in the past, you should know they have some sort of foundation. With Brainfreeze and Product Placement, they stuck to soul, or Funk 45s, limiting themselves so they can truly experiment with what they got and build from there.

With this tour, they stuck to 45s, but expanded their palette to include hip hop, r&b, rock, etc. And it was good. Everything from the Beastie Boys to Foo Fighters to Metallica to Aaliyah to De La Soul was included. I do not know how they found a path to go from one to the other, but it was there and they took it.

Chemist seemed a little more reserved than usual, and Shadow was being Shadow, but I guess they were mainly focused on the music. Overall, it was a good 2 hours of sounds, blips, beeps, and portable DJing that helped me escape the monotony of a Wednesday night.