Photo: Helen Alwan

The Brisbane Powerhouse - Mon Apr 21

Can a person be forgiven for not paying attention to the opening act? Perhaps they can on occasion, when punters are kept outside until their set starts and their atmosphere-breeding set has to compete with lines for drinks and other customary pre-headline prep. It’s Cutloose’s last set before he heads overseas, and its perfection is lent by invisibility, till we find our places on the floor and the last strains of Six Days fade to welcome the main event.

A lot of people have waited years to see DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist play together. For those who need schooling, the show begins with a custom made ‘instructional’ video explaining the deal: eight turntables, all original 45s, vantage-point video cameras. Shadow and Chemist tell us that the night should be like ‘sitting in someone’s living room’, then proceed to execute a set in two movements that dips and dives far from ground already walked on in Brainfreeze, Slurp or Product Placement; the tunes don’t flow so much as take tangents, with a focus shift from funk 45s to frank eclecticism. The Hard Sell is more about the vinyl than the dancefloor, and it shows when people at the front start drifting backwards. It’s their loss: the pair throw in homages to Gilligan’s Island and De La Soul before introducing part two, which speeds up to honour ‘80s video games before executing a brilliant, Eno-esque split beat-juggle and slightly-too-long segue into latin breaks. They end by slinging on portable decks and scratching Metallica’s One … it’s not life-changing, but life would be nice if all lounge rooms had Shadow and Chemist merrily mixing in the corner.

JANEWORLD

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