So yeah, haven't been making it out to shows at all lately. Been way too busy at home working on music in Ableton and to some extent Pro Tools. I did make the effort out to see Emancipator, although there have been a ton of other shows recently that I missed, Debruit being a standout. That being said, Emancipator rocked Harper's Ferry last friday and I was there to catch it. I took the beautiful Maria Alejandra, a Colombian friend of mine, and we both agreed it was an awesome show.
Wobblesauce was the opening band, who I had heard of from a couple places. They had played at Wadzilla Mansion, a friend of mine from school's new music venue in Allston among other places I remember seeing them listed. I've actually sampled a song of theirs, since their album is free to download and worth a listen.Anyways, they had a really chill but rockin' jamtronica type sound that really did a good job loosening up the crowd.
Their music was like the Disco Biscuits I guess, although I don't really listen to much of that stuff myself. Some really nice, Santana/Dead style guitar licks paired up with some flowing, groovy key work and electronic button mashing, with a good bass and drums backing. Played some good reggae/dub stuff I was feeling in particular, plus their opening album track "Rubadub DUB" as a closer was definitely pretty rockin'.
Smoke break later, out came a couple girls and what was probably Emancipator on the stage. The girls, hot of course, started setting up a large white paint canvass on an easel. It was really cool, his show had live painting the whole time. Anyways, he started playing and was pretty much in complete control for the rest of the night. If you're not familiar with his music, it's downtempo and melodic for the most part, but nonetheless pretty powerful, with choirs, string sections, and much more. I was definitely curious to see what his live performance was like, in context with the chillout aspect of his albums, but he definitely didn't disappoint.
He played mostly original material, and it was nicely varied from the original but also retaining the initial magic I heard in his records. His songs are really atmospheric and emotional, with dense layers of sound combining in uplifting and powerful passages. And it all has awesome beats, in varying combinations, largely hip hop based. He blended in a remix of Nas "If I could rule the world", dope track for sure and his take on it was definitely pretty sweet.
My roommate was leaving for Japan in a few days and we were throwing her a goodbye party, so I had to leave after a solid hour and half of dancing, but I left feeling exhilarated and very happy. The girls had completed a really solid work of art already and were still adding small finishing touches as I left, timed perfectly to the duration of the set no doubt. Great concert overall, definitely one of the better shows I've ever been to. Look forward to more music from Emancipator in the future and wish the dude much success, he definitely deserves it.
Check his first album out here
Off to San Francisco, so probably no posts for a week or so. Gonna have some dope new ish up my sleeve when I get back though, for sure. Peace and love.
