RJD2 + Dälek + Happy Chichester - Chop Suey (Seattle, WA; Apr. 12, 2008)

Opening up the set (and later featured as a band member with RJD2) was Happy Chichester, who mentioned his function would normally be to warm us up, but in this case—as the club was already quite warm— his purpose was to “not overheat [us].” Thank you, Happy, I appreciated the gesture. Happy was a pleasant blend of hard-strumming guitar, singing, looped beat-box tricks, a mix of higher vocals (including Elton John’s “I read it in a maga-ZIne” line), and low rumbling digeridoo sounds. His track “Glamous Town” was funky, and reminded me of Stevie Wonder. In general, I found quite a few of his tunes danceable. As my friend [and fellow melophobe contributor extraordinaire] Kelly Davidson observed, “It’s like an open-mic session when you actually get someone good.” Apparently, Happy also works with local artist Shawn Smith, which would explain why Smith was wandering around the club earlier in the evening.

If Happy represents the lighter, guitar and vocal aspects of an RJD2 performance then the second opener, New Jersey’s Dälek, brought the heavy, loud, throbbing hip-hop element. Self-described as playing some “gutter shit,” this tattooed, bald, muscled duo used some intensely angry sounding rapping and screaming over sustained, distorted, musical tracks not particularly like the music you hear in most hip-hop today. I decided two things would have made them a better act for me: ear-plugs and a familiarity with the lyrics. I’m sure he was laying down some serious knowledge, but I struggled to understand what exactly he was saying amid the loud sounds.

By the time RJD2 finally took the stage at almost midnight, I had already lost my spot at stage front to make two necessary trips outside to escape the rapidly climbing temperature inside Chop Suey. Still, I was happy to hear “1976” open up the show, with its familiar dramatic intro stretched into the up-tempo horns and instantly danceable rhythm. The accompanying video projections were well-matched to the music, rapidly cutting along with breaks in the tracks, and even included some Aqua Teen Hunger Force clips, earning a few cheerful chuckles from the crowd. The various 60s musicians and monsters flickering before us were also well-suited to the mood of RJD2s tunes. RJD2 soon transitioned into “Smoke and Mirrors,” the song that led me to buy a RJD2 record in the first place due to layering of muted trumpet, airy keys, building chord progression, and samples of slow, soulful vocals.

The set progressed through a nice balance of slower vocals and jazzy beats, and included a smattering of older material from the Deadringer and Since We Last Spoke albums, mixed with a few tracks from his latest The Third Hand. Noticeably lacking in this set were the heavier, fist-pumping “hip-hop” vocal tracks—instead the sound has been replaced by the addition of live vocals, bass, guitar, keys, and drums deftly managed by RJ himself, Happy Chichester and friends. After the crowd head-bobbed through “Through the Walls,” I got a rare glimpse of what was actually occurring on the stage (I’m a little on the short side) as the screen panned to RJ hammering the buttons with a Mario puppet (well, Mario actually did the hammering). As I grooved along to another old time favorite, “Good Times Roll (Part 2)”—with its funky scratching—I was sad to see my friends among the many others leaving, saying “It’s just too damn hot in here.” Which might be the time to mention that it was hot, and not just club-warm but hot like the time I made the mistake of visiting Savannah in June, and hot like people were catching the sweat dripping off their faces just sitting at a table in the back of the bar. Hot to the point that, while I loved most of the beats and completely wanted to dance, I was having a hard time focusing. [SO HOT, reports Kelly, that his girlfriend couldn’t see out of her glasses due to the condensing human-sweat fog upon her lenses. Eeeew.] This music isn’t really meant to just be observed, but that was exactly what I felt I was doing sitting on a stool in the bar, watching the top of the screen project space robots bobbing to the live drums of “Ghostwriter” (the song you describe to people by saying it was in that Wells Fargo commercial).

The band briefly messed up starting into the crescendos of “Since We Last Spoke,” but this didn’t seem to phase RJD2 too much, as he laughed and started right back into rocking on the guitar. The addition of a live band enhanced this track in particular, allowing for some nice harmonizing vocals between RJ and Happy, yet I still wish the song had a bit more to the ending as it builds such a dramatic effect—I’m not sure if I was waiting for rockets to take off or something, but I just wish such a nice setup could go a bit further and actually realize the built-up potential. RJD2 briefly addressed the crowd after this number, but unfortunately I lost the words through the bar chatter interference. I also will admit I got briefly distracted by the man in front of me sporting a Mohawk mullet!? (shaved on the outsides, long through the middle, party down the back) and an argument between a bartender and patron that went something like:

Patron: “I will never come here again for a show, this is the worst venue.”
Bartender: “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen!”

Which left me thinking: “But I thought the kitchen was closed . . . .”

The band continued on with some tunes from RJ’s more recent material, including “Work it Out,” during which I enjoyed the bright keys and minimal lyrics, but found the overall track to suffer for its lack of startling noises and electronic tempo changes that usually keeps me moving along. I do, however, highly recommend the music video to this song if you like freestyle crutch dancing.

In general, I appreciated layering live instruments into the mix, but I felt this came at a price, sacrificing some of RJ’s other talents, which lie in selecting cool R&B vocal samples and building many layers into a full, electronic, dramatic score. Based on the crowds’ attention throughout the evening, I would say I wasn’t alone in this observation—as RJD2 closed the set with the popular older tune, “The Horror,” the cheers increased. Including a musical Scooby Doo intro, “The Horror” made me feel as if I was indeed wandering around a haunted house, with spooky chanting vocals and the song’s signature crash–and-fade-out sounds permeating the mix.

After a brief chorus of chanting “RJ-D2” (which I couldn’t help associating with Star Wars), the group opened up the encore with “Making Days Longer.” Perhaps they followed with another song or two, but to be honest, I had stepped outside by this point and was chatting to others that had also abandoned the “kitchen.” I will definitely continue to listen to his older albums and perhaps try watching them with old films, but I can’t say I will be going back to see the act again, unless perhaps at another venue with fewer people and features more of RJ at the tables. I give RJD2 props for making more of the music himself on his latest album and tour, but what I like best—and what is special about his music—are his electronic DJ skills that seem to have been left simmering on the backburner while he experiments with his voice and guitar.

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