Stereosonic Satellite 1.0 feat. Booka Shade @ The Enmore, Sydney (22/11/08)
It’s always a pity when something doesn’t live up to your (lofty) expectations. You go along to an event, more excited than a kid on his first day of school, only to find it just doesn’t satisfy you like it could have. Such was the case on Saturday night at Satellite 1.0, headlined by Booka Shade and Japanese Popstars. It’s not that it sucked, in fact far from it, it just wasn’t the amazing night I personally had hyped it up to be in my own mind.
Club Junque was at the helm for the opening set, and frankly, his set was the most enjoyable of the whole evening. In his inimitable style, he seamlessly blended sounds from across the house and prog spectrum, but focused primarily on deep, simple grooves and slowly built up the intensity as 9:30 approached. There were splashes of acid, bits of clicky, mechanical goodness and plenty of warm, melodic vibes which all sat together perfectly. If anyone knows how to play an opening set, it’s this guy. Props.
Japanese Popstars were up next, and well, the less said about them the better. To start with, they weren’t even Japanese, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t popstars either. That’s like NWA re-naming themselves The Rich White Guys. But semantics aside, their music isn’t much to write home about either. Noisy. Farty. Electro. Next fad, please. It seemed popular with the crowd though, so maybe it’s just me.
Booka Shade however, were pretty good. Not amazing, but still pretty good. Their energy on stage was admirable and definitely infectious (so much so, that a few people tried their luck at jumping up on stage), and the tightness of the performance itself was definitely something to behold. Watching Walter man two laptops, two keyboards and effects units (as well as occasionally provide some vocals), and Arno play along with absolutely perfect timing on an electronic drum kit was impressive to say the least. And to top it off, there was a nice selection of new material such as Charlotte and Sweet Lies (as well as a couple of unreleased goodies) and classics such as In White Rooms, Mandarin Girl (to open, no less) and Night Falls, as well as a nice varied flow throughout the performance, with big, ballsy bangers being followed by funkier or more melodic efforts.
But something just wasn’t right. It might have been the crowd. They were the epitome of what so called ‘jaded’ types complain about at times: rude, pushy, and largely uneducated on the act they were seeing. This was no better exemplified than when Booka Shade played In White Rooms and the whole crowd proceeded to shove to the front of the room without any regard for people in their way and go completely bananas, only to basically stop dancing and hardly even move an inch when they followed it with a more subtle, deep track that wasn’t featured on the last Ministry Of Sound CD. If it wasn’t the crowd, then maybe it was the performance itself: it just seemed unnecessarily “massive”. The beauty of Booka Shade’s material is how simple it is. Tracks like In White Rooms and Night Falls are nothing more than a few simple percussive layers and a clever bassline, but on Saturday so much was added to the tunes it almost felt like a band was covering their work. Yes it was impressive and yes it was creative, but in many cases (especially Charlotte and In White Rooms) it actually detracted from the beauty of the tracks rather than enhanced it.
Nonetheless, it was overall an enjoyable performance. It just wasn’t the orgasm-inducing brilliance that I (and others) had hyped it up to be. Maybe next time, boys, maybe next time.
Elliot G says...
not a bad review i guess Wowk ;-)..... sounds like a nice night, although i'm kinda glad i stayed away now.. their show at Gaelic last year will tide me over till next time..
Richierich5381 says...
Cracking review as usual Mr.Wowk. Sounds like i picked the right sideshow on the night...
avatar_karma says...
great review mate. well written, but i disagree with some points. maybe this was because i am bias as booka shade is definatly my favourite live act (this being the third time ive seen them). your second last paragraph i agree with completely, you are spot on. but overall, i thought it was brilliant to say the least, almost living upto the performance they put on at the metro little over a year ago.
schmidsta says...
I would agree with the comments about the music subtlety being lost as well as the large amount of the crowd who were only there for two songs. The real problem I had with the show was the length. For 50 bucks would have expected more than the 55 minutes we were given. If the issue was as the band said "sorry guys, we have a bad curfew" then why couldn't they have started earlier - the japanese popstars were hardly a good substitution. Considering the price of the actual stereosonic festival in the other cities and the variety of acts you could see I was disappointed by the length. Can't complain though - hadn't seen them before and was very impressed. Wished they had played Psychameleon!!
ehcoroche says...
left me feeling like a jaded old man, im glad it wasnt just me, you pretty much summed up my feeling of the whole thing perfectly. i really dont have much to add except to say that i enjoyed the rest of my night more than the start, and to double up on the props to club junque
charlie301 says...
Nicely put Mr Wowk, I thought it was only me that was disappointed with the night, especially looking at the people who seemed to love it so much they created a mosh pit?!?! For an act like Booka Shade everything just seemed kinda wrong, the crowd, the lighting, the venue, the whole atmosphere.. Oh well they are still an awesome act, and you can't deny the quality of their recordings. Unfortunatly I just found them a little underwhelming......
JacquiM says...
I must agree that the crowd and the venue definantly had an impact on the performance. However, I thought their show was nothing short of brilliant..! Being front row middle was probably a major positive influence to the atmosphere and overall performance. Walter n Arno were definantly g-ing up the crowd and loving the response! I cant believe the jerks that jumped on stage knocking over Walter's gear and breaking his keyboard. You call yourself a fan? Stay at home jerks and listen to your Ministry of Sound cds....
kittykat83 says...
well im glad i hit up the canberra show instead it was Awesome, and free!!