By ANDY VIHSTADT
It’s hard to imagine that someone with Z-Trip’s accolades would ever play to an empty house. Given that the man once paired up with the quasi-local legend, DJ P, for the groundbreaking Uneasy Listening album (thought to be the birth of the mashup movement), coupled with the fact that the show was free, I expected Abe & Jake’s hotel-lobby-meets-Davy-Crocket museum interior to be bursting at the seams. It wasn’t.
The Lawrence stop was part of the Bacardi Live Tour, and during DJ Troublemaker’s opening set, the scantily clad hired help may have outnumbered the fans. There was plenty of shwag to be had, along with a video screen that played a non-stop ad for rum. The only ones dancing were on the Bacardi payroll.
Without pausing between sets, Z-Trip took over the turntables while N2Deep’s “Back to the Hotel” saxophone break was losing steam (Wreckx-N-Effect’s “Rump Shaker” had been played earlier). He let the audience know that he didn’t “give a fuck about playing to a thin crowd.” He was there to have a good time. His set was a good mix of hip-hop, rock and any odd combination in between.
Z-Trip has been known to mix politics with pleasure, and he’s been active in supporting Obama’s bid for the White House. His next show is a fundraiser for the Democratic nominee and he’s made mention of an “Obama set” on his Web site. I was hoping to hear a preview, but this was a corporate gig. The most we got was a “Happy 9/11”. Then again, maybe that was a good thing.
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Ever since The Regrets, Panel Donor, Bubble Boys and Everest broke up, that town has become one huge jock smelling lame-o. Go Basketball? Signed- Why even bother driving to Lawrence other than for the beer soup.
...so few people showed up for such a great dj.
Abe & Jakes has totally fucked up 2 of these Bacardi shows now...the last one with Dan The Automator (Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, etc) was super dead too.
All they had to do was attempt to spread the word just a little and it would have been packed.....
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