DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist, 13.03.08

I'll admit that I was very worried when I went into this gig as I had, erm, "obtained" an mp3 of the Hard Sell set that these two were performing in the States and I wasn't overly impressed. I'm a big fan of Brainfreeze and Product Placement, the two preceding shows they have put together (I went to see Product Placement at the Scala in fact when they did it, and it was blinding) but the new direction away from the old funk records didn't gel with me when I listened to it. So despite having spent £25 on a ticket as soon as they went on sale I was dubious as we actually got to the venue. Ian from our office was similarly nervous but we crossed our fingers that we'd be proven completely wrong and guess what? We were.

It was brilliant, loads more old school hip hop than I was expecting, a fantastic bit in the middle of the first set when they recreated loads of old De La Soul tracks using only the original records from which the samples were taken and plenty more to make this boy very happy. It was definitely more eclectic that either of its predecessors mixing more electro, indie (Bloc Party, Foo Fighters and Blur at one point!) and nearly venturing into drum & bass at one point.

Obviously the technicality of both DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist was amazing but even they seemed to have a couple of slip ups where their respective tunes went out of synch with each other and needed to be kicked and shoved a bit to bring it back. But I actually enjoyed that to be honest and seeing Shadow give a bit of a wry smile and a shrug of the shoulders proved that they weren't just playing off some DAT but it was a real-time performance and those couple of small blips demonstrated just how difficult the whole thing was and the fact that the rest of it went flawlessly is testament to their skills. Eight turntables, four mixers, a selection of guitar pedals and a couple of samplers are hard to keep on top of I would imagine.

And then to top it all they encored with a scratch version of Metallica's 'One' which lifted the roof off an already ecstatic Roundhouse.

So, definitely one for the geekier among us but an absolute treat to watch and listen to. I'm very glad I was wrong.

If you haven't heard the Brainfreeze mix yet then you owe it to yourself to do so as soon as you can. You can download the first part here.