He Loves Ann Arbor...
Acclaimed Blues/Ja:: guitarist John
Scofield can't seem to {.et enougTh of
this town. He plays tonight at the Ark.
ARd1g
FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 29, 2000
michigandaily.com /arts
Flashy
Colloqum
hits League
By W. Jacari Meltonr
Daily Arts Wrnter
Dar Williams sings t
the folk choir at the
Michigan Theater
By Christian Hoard
Daily Arts writer
Perhaps the most remarkable thing
about Dar Williams' concert at the
Michigan Theater Wednesday night
is that it happened at all. Over seven
years and four albums, Williams has
For about three hours on Wednesday night, the year
2000 became 1984. Adidas shell toes and sweat suits
were brought out. People were "poppin"' and doing a
little bit of "breakin'." No, this wasn't a recasting for
"Krush Groove," "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogalo" or
any other movie of the early '80s street dance genre.
The Ann Arbor DJ Music
Colloquium hosted a panel dis-
cussion and show featuring
"old school" hip-hop artists
Ann Arbor Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster
DJ MusiC Flash along with drum n' bass
Colloquium artist LTJ Bukem and
techno/house DJs Kenny
League Ballroom Larkin and John Acquaviva.
Sept 27, 2000 The panel discussion cen-
tered primarily around how
each artist got their start in their
respective musical areas. Both
Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster
Flash, most recently the DJ for
the Chris Rock show, started
their musical careers roughly 27 years ago, before
most of the roughly 300-person crowd was born.
They also had similar influences, like the sounds of
Motown and James Brown, which deviated from the
popular musical format of the time: Disco. Flash stat-
ed through listening to his father's record collection,
he began to respect the music as well as the records
themselves. His general interest was heightened after
enrolling in a technical high school where he began to
learn about electronics. The education he received
eventually led him to create his own audio system, a
crude version of a modern DJ mixer. The purpose of
the mixer was to lengthen the short drum breaks
found in songs like those by James Brown. His cre-
ation would soon aid in spawning a musical revolu-
tion. Shortly thereafter, emcees like Kurtis Blow
began to rhyme over the lengthened breaks created by
DJs like Flash and Grandwizard Theodore. Thus, the
model for modern day hip-hop was formed.
Using some of the methods developed in hip-hop,
Dar
Williams
Michigan Theater
Sept. 27, 2000
become known
for her intro-
s p e c t i v e
songcraft, emo-
tional clarity and
a good deal of
political railing
- the sort of
stuff that you're
much more like-
ly to hear in a
tiny coffeehouse
than a thousand-
seat theater.
Then .again,
with the rise in
popularity of
as she poked fun both at herself an,
the minor technical problems th;
plagued most of her 90-minute se
Though appearing before the hushe
and reverent crowd at the Theati
gave Williams a chance to air o
some of the songs which appeared c
"Green World," the rather stuffy albut
she released this past August, tlel
setting mostly seemed to lend itse-
Williams' occasional role as a Gen
storyteller. On "When I Was a Boy" ar
"The Babysitter's Here" Williams spt
out vignettes of youthful innocence at
awkwardness, while "Christians and ti
Pagans" recounted the tale of
Christmas dinner cum religious battle
ground.
If Williams' performance wt
slightly less than satisfying, it was nc
so much because of anything Willi-
did wrong than because of the of,
sional blandness of her corn-fed, mit
dIe-of-the road songs. Too many nun
bers (like "Spring Street" or "What C
You Hear in These Sounds") offer
poignant lyrics without a decor
melody attached, and only on "Bett
Things," a cover of the Kinks' originm
did Williams' flat-footed band have
chance to cut loose.
While Williams no doubt sent
devotees home happy, she occasions
ly seemed to preach to the cho
which - perhaps not unexpected
- consisted mostly of thirty-som
things and students who no dou
spent their time studying while liste
ing to Ms. Williams and her ilk on tl
stereo in Caribou Coffeehous
Although, in principle, there's nothir
wrong with exclusivity, it's equal
apparent that, if the touchy-feely
stuff isn't your bag, even Willie
most sweetly-construed convictiro
might slip by unnoticed.
Sam Holenshead/UAILY
Both the wheels of steel and an eager audience were under the control of Grandmaster Flash on Wednesday.
musical forms like techno started to develop in the
late 70s and early 80s. House music, which finds its
roots in the underground disco of the 70s and early
80s, emerged in the mid 80s. Despite the innovation
demonstrated by the pioneer DJs of these genres,
according to John Aquaviva, they had to keep from
becoming more than jukeboxes. The pressure to con-
form to the industry standard of music weighted heav-
ily but hip-hop, techno, drum n' bass and house with-
stood and remain vibrant art forms.
To demonstrate this energy and originality, LTJ
Bukem and MC Conrad did a drum n' bass perfor-
mance which managed to move segments of the
crowd but left some standing, seemingly trying to
understand or take in something they don't hear
everyday. However, Bukem and Conrad still received
a round of applause when their set concluded. Up next
was Kurtis Blow. His set began with a track younger,
and less educated, fans may credit to Nas, "If I Ruled
the World." Blow, clad in the traditional b-boy uni-
form of Adidas from head to toe, proved he still had
the ability to move a crowd with the common call and
response techniques found at most hip-hop shows.
The audience proved even more surprising by being
able to recite lyrics to songs that don't receive much
play, even in places where old school hip-hop is the
rule.
See DJs, Page 9
singer-songwriters like Ani
DiFranco and Shawn Colvin (to
whom Williams is frequently com-
pared) there's certainly a market for
Williams' brand of very contempo-
rary folk-rock, and, not long after
Williams took the stage before a
nearly-packed house, it was certainly
apparent that her beautiful soprano
voice also had something to do with
all of the people showing up.
Williams' voice, in fact, sounded
typically resplendent Wednesday,
wafting above the understated
accompaniment of her backing band
on "Calling the Moon," the gentle,
lilting opener and the morosely-defi-
ant "If I Wrote You."
For someone who's been pegged as
a serious-minded lyricist, Williams'
wit was in fine form on Wednesday,
WWW.MICHIGANDAIL Y. COMIA RTS
El
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