PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! PARTY TIL THE LATE NIGHT! PARTY TIL THE LATE NIGHT! PARTY TIL THE LATE NIGHT! PARTY TIL THE LATE NIGHT! PARTY TIL THE LATE NIGHT! PARTY TIL THE LATE NIGHT!
If you love being yelled at, or got off on reading that last bit, you would have loved TxE (read: tee-and-ee). I, however, was more interested in the crispy chicken salad I ordered from the bar than what these guys were feeding me.
An intermission allowed for a decent transition from bad music to good, as well as a talent show of sorts on the dance floor, including a back bend and pole-dance charade by a young lady, and a fashion show of twelve year olds. Soon, Shabazz Palaces saved our battered senses with something intelligent. The set was short and sweet. The duo stood stoically side-by-side and delivered their message, eyes hidden by sun/stage-lighting glasses. One operated a Macbook and the other tapped away on a set of tribal hand drums. The clever clash between old and new was immediately apparent. Also apparent was the majority of the crowd's complete lack of interest as indicated by the overwhelming roar of conversation. Not surprisingly, the crowd interrupted the set half way through by chanting, “Macklemore! Macklemore!” even after frontman MC Palaceer Lazaro delivered a cool-headed response: “You guys know he’s gonna be out here in a few minutes, right?” They didn’t care. This music was way too cerebral and dark to be sandwiched between two high energy hip hop acts. When I later apologized to the group for the crowd's bad behavior, they just concurred in a zen-like fashion that they too "Did that shit when [they] were sixteen." Musically, Shabazz Palaces is just as the name suggests; like an Indian temple, ornate and unique, yet constructed with the utmost care and purpose. Their sound is un-formulaic and experimental, but on the surface can come across as your basic strongly-worded hip-hop. I'm not worried about them though. If a group can sound psychedelic and act down-to-earth, and turn in performances that involve playful on-beat secret hand shakes and sporadic choreographed dance moves, they are bound to hook a specific population of music lovers...the smart ones.
