Concert Review: Jamie Lidell at the El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, May 29, 2008
The coolest people in the world are the ones who can dress and act like mad fools and still deserve your admiration because they’re abilities, talent and charisma trump any superficial impressions. In a town where cool is valued above all things except money, Jamie Lidell was king for a day.
Lidell began his career as techno artist, but by the time he was collaborating with Lo Fidelity Allstars on 2002′s “Deep Ellum”, it was clear he wanted to be a soul man. And he was in front of the packed El Rey audience, dragging along a band featuring a bongo player, a bassist, a drummer and a reedsman who could play two saxophones at once just like Dana Colley of Morphine, doing just that. Singing songs from “Multiply” and his latest, “Jim,” while wearing striped baggies and what looked like a too-small snakeskin jacket, Lidell came on like the truest believer in the power of classic R&B, but with an unquenchable desire to geekily tinker with his toys.
One minute, he could be singing like Otis Redding with a noticeable Terrence Trent D’Arby rasp, the next he would be hunched over his laptop, layering an audience singalong and his irrespressible and impressive beatboxing into a post-modern funk symphony. These exercises can be terribly boring in concert, but Lidell’s mad science kept everyone dancing.
For his finale, Lidell did his most recognizable song, “Multiply,” but instead of a laid-back, Macon, Ga.-style Southern soul song in the vein of Redding, Lidell recast it as a Wilson Pickett-style raveup, and it simply killed. I missed Lidell when he opened for Beck a couple of years ago at Cain’s Ballroom, and this made up for the loss. Jim, we need you to come back to Oklahoma and, give us a big dose of soul, pale Englishman-style.
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