Overdue Saul Williams Concert Review, April 18, 2008...

So dear readers, I woke up this morning to the news that Trent has indeed released a new album, The Slip, which fans can download for FREE. Unfortunately, I have to pay the bills, which requires getting to my day job in the morning, so I have not yet been able to listen to it, but comment and discussion will be forthcoming. I know that it's a popular position around here that a Nine Inch Nails album isn't worth listening to unless it has taken 10 years to produce, or alternately, that we should all be exploring ancient Norse Death Metal instead, but *I* am certainly excited to hear the new album. I am especially appreciative of the trusting relationship that Trent is building with his fans, where he doesn't just want to collect money every time someone listens to his songs. He wants to get his work out there and wants his fans to deconstruct it and rebuild it or create their own art in response to it. So kudos to him. Hopefully I can get that on my ipod tonight.

Anyhoo.

Saul Williams!!!!

So Iris, Mr. Iris, Ro, and I made our way over to Martyr's, a tiny Chicago club that was packed for the late-night sold-out show. Normally shows that begin at 10 p.m. (with opening acts) make me grumpy, because a ghost dog loves her beauty sleep, but since I managed to double-book myself for another important event that night, it worked out to my advantage. We arrived approximately halfway through the opening set, as performed by the Dragons of Zynth. They kind of reminded me of Living Color, and there was some funk to their harder rock sound. I never fell madly in love with them, but I was pleased by the Barack Obama poster that they had flanking the stage. Sorry, Hillary fans, but you'll find a lot of Obama-love at a Saul Williams show.

There was a loooooooooooooooong wait between the two acts, but 40 minutes later, CX KiDTRONiK took the stage in full Spiderman costume, which had to be hot as hell because even at the back of the stage, your PP correspondents were roasting. (Unfortunately because the club remained cloaked in darkness for the entire show, we don't have quite as many awesome pics and vids for you, but of course, what Iris did manage to capture is brilliant, as usual.)




When Saul finally took the stage, he was dressed in feathers and tribal face paint, and this awesome, awesome David Bowie/Adam Ant-esque coat.



Saul opened with some spoken word, invoking the names of artists and revolutionaries, and he would return to spoken word several times throughout the set, which was actually quite exhilerating. His delivery is always powerful, even if you aren't entirely sure if what sounds profound actually makes any sense. It does make me wonder if he's apt to bust out into spoken word during normal conversations:

Me: Saul, what do you want for dinner tonight?
Saul: Fresh meat, feel the beat, the poet, the painter, the jungle, the temple, my heart is broken but my pants are mended...
Me: Oh, Jesus Christ.

Although Iris felt that Saul's vocals were occasionally off-key, this was a tight, tight performance with a lot of enthusiasm. Saul moved through the crowd, stood on the merchandise table, and got a room full of white hipsters to dance like dorks (no easy feat, I can assure you). The Public Enemy-influenced "Tr(n)igger" was an explosion of energy...I was surprised because it's the song that theoretically would appeal to me least, but it's now become my favorite song on the album.

"Niggy Tardust" was a fun experience for the audience as most of us participated in the amusing chorus..."When I say 'Niggy,' you say nothing. Niggy..." "NOTHING!" "Niggy..." "NOTHING!!!!" "Shut up." Saul took a few moments to chuckle at the audience members who looked a little intimidated. "Should I say 'nothing'? Should I just be quiet? Am I allowed to say the title of this song?" I believe it was at this point that Saul explained to us his belief that we are all one, and that when one of us is degraded with a racial slur, we are all degraded. Referencing Obama, he said that you don't have to have a mixed racial background to be "hybrids," and that we are all hybrids. Which is true. I mean, I'm the whitest girl on the planet, but through my veins runs the blood of nationalities that all hate each other, plus at least one genetic wild card where paternity couldn't be confirmed, so I could be part anything. So I agree with and embrace Saul's inclusive philosophy, but I'm still not going to be spouting off the n-word. Even when I sing along with "Tr(n)igger" in the car, it usually goes like this: "The trigger is YOU...the nnnnnn...is YOU...the trigger is YOU!"

If you haven't yet heard Saul's previous self-titled album, it's definitely worth checking out, as "List of Demands" and "Black Stacey" were standouts at this show and audience favorites.

Going back to Niggy Tardust, we also got "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Scared Money," the latter being one of my favorite tracks with the tambourine and voodoo rhythms. And as I'm trying to achieve some kind of self-actualization, the chorus has become a mantra of sorts for me. (Not that I'm talking about actual money when I remind myself that "Scared money don't make none.")

In other audience-bonding moments, Saul assured us that he reads his Myspace messages as he wished a happy anniversary to a fan who didn't seem to respond. So he felt like a dork for a moment, I think. He also encouraged us to visit the merchandise table, considering that most people just downloaded his album for free. (I'm very happy with my hyena t-shirt, folks, which was a reasonable $20, so I recommend indulging in some "Tardust" fashion. I was also happy to see that my t-shirt did not include the word "niggy" anywhere, as I didn't want to be the subject of any misunderstandings in public.) And we all got to sing happy birthday to the woman selling the merchandise for the night, and she appeared to be charmingly embarrassed.

I know I'm jumping all over the place, but it's hard to recount the intensity of this show. Here's a clip of "Banged and Blown Through," as filmed by Iris. You'll have to excuse the darkness and sound quality, as they had the volume turned up to 11 in the tiny venue.

There were also quieter, more contemplative moments. We were particularly moved by the part of "No One Ever Does," when he sings, "Suddenly, who I thought was me/ was not me at all/ and I feel so small/Sitting way beneath who I want to be/I don't want to be who I've grown to be..." At this point, Saul started removing the feathers from his headdress and dropping them to the audience, looking lost. An excellent performance of a song that I tend to write off as something that sounds like a Seal track.

When I walked out of Martyr's, well past my bedtime, I felt refreshed and invigorated, rather than exhausted. My ears were ringing, to be sure, but I'll forgive Saul for any aural damage, as this was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. At one point, I texted Gabriel to inform him that Saul Williams live was truly a mind-blowing experience. One that I can't recommend highly enough to all of you.



If you would like to check out more Saul Williams pics, look here!

Review of the Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!

Alright guys. Let's just back away from the last few posts with all the unpleasant comments they generated and move on to something I'm sure we can all love. Saul Williams's new album:

The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!

I'll admit I was leery at first because while I liked some songs of his previous album, it was by no means my favorite, but I still wanted to support this new "label-free" experiment Trent and others are working on. I'm happy to say that my fears were completely unnecessary, and this album totally rocks! Download it for free or download it for $5, the choice is yours, but just DOWNLOAD IT! The cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is almost worth the $5 on its own, and you shouldn't cut yourself short in the sound quality on this one or any of the other heavily layered tracks. Free 192kps mp3 = crap -OR- $5 320kps mp3 = much higher quality. Or even go for the $5 FLAC lossless audio, but be prepared to use a conversion program to get it to play.

You can clearly hear Trent's NIN influence in the music, and he is credited on most of the songs. If a person were to listen to Year Zero and this album back to back, I don't think they'd be surprised to learn they were recorded about the same time (both being worked on while Saul was the opening act during the [With_Teeth] tour). Both are beautifully layered with "noise," but where Trent makes his lyrical points blunt with NIN, Saul speaks in wide-ranging metaphors cleverly concealed in catchy, dance-able beats so that his "message" isn't completely overpowering. I recommend listening to the whole album before specifically reading the lyrics; it makes it easier if you can hear the flow as you go. Saul has a sense of humor about studying lyrics so closely though. If you're reading through them in iTunes, when you get to the last song, instead of lyrics you get "enough already. Stop reading and dance" and then a plug to his other book The Dead Emcee Scrolls ("available now in bookstores" he tells us).

While I like all the general topics brought up throughout the songs (standing up for yourself, problems with political authority, self doubt, etc), I wasn't so keen about all the "N" bombs being dropped. It's just not my style and therefore not normally something I even give a chance, but after reading a bit from a document included with the leaked tracks, you realize he's intentionally trying to make you feel uncomfortable.

"The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the lovechild of Trent and me. The NiggyTardust concept sets me free to do more on stage with costume, etc. than one might expect from a regular Saul Williams show. It allows me to put my theatre training to use. I've also thought long and hard about all the discussion surrounding racial epithets etc. and chose this title as a means of furthering the dialogue while also showing how creativity will outlive and outshine hatred of any kind."

He's wanting to change the interpretations and negative connotations surrounding it. That's commendable and should make for an interesting show when he goes on tour to support this release. So our dear RoRo was onto something. Saul's taking it back, y'all.

But like Saul said, "enough already" on over-analyzing words because the music is pretty amazing too. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" has been overhauled into a bouncy, up-tempo beat that is infectious. It started with just tapping my foot, but by the second round of "oh, oh, oh"s, I was singing along. This one sticks in my head all day and is definitely one of my top three picks. While the majority of the other tracks have that NIN-influenced abrasiveness or sound "hard" because of the delivery of the vocals (e.g., "Black History Month," "Convict Colony," "Break," "Skin of a Drum," "The Ritual"), the songs that really stood out and blew me way were the softer and self-doubting "No One Ever Does" and the simply structured "Banged & Blown Through." I love the vulnerability of the keyboards and the soft texture of the vocals in "No One Ever Does." And while the drumbeat of "Banged & Blown Through" is strong, the falsetto backup vocals manage to still make it feel vulnerable and it gets me every time. That's not to say I don't like the harshness of the other songs mentioned above because I do. In fact, I would say it's the perfect set up to make these softer tunes really jump out at you.

I feel the album artwork is also worth mentioning. I felt that leery sense again when I heard Rob Sheridan had a hand in it, but it's not as bad as all that. The booklet is included with the download as a .pdf file, and much of it reminds me of what was briefly shown in Saul's book (s)he, only with color. Even the lyrics, handwritten in most cases, add to the eclectic group of artwork. There seems to be a running theme of Roman-inspired horses, a few images of Egyptian Gods, and this little voodoo-looking guy. You can clearly see him on page 26 of the booklet, but notice that he's also hiding behind a layer of paint on pages 17 & 27. His little eyes peek out at you. Kind of creepy, no? My point here is that anyone concerned with this new manner of music distribution and seemingly inevitable extinction of album artwork or booklets needs only look through the included .pdf file to see that it will be okay. Perhaps that makes me old school, but I like looking through that stuff. It enhances the tone of everything else. I'd like to think of the much criticized ARG as Trent's online (albeit elaborate) version of Year Zero's "album artwork."

Overall, I think that Trent and Saul mesh well together, and I hope they stay close for future projects. Their two styles and passions (music and lyrics/spoken word) compliment each other. It's been fun delving into this album and its layers and layers of content, and I can't wait to see what else is waiting to reveal itself in subsequent listens. Bottom line people: YOU SHOULD GET THIS.