The Hard Sell UK details

I went to see this show in Camden at the roundhouse last night.

I have been a Shadow fan as long as I can remember, whatever he did in the past used to be the forefront of what was cool, a bit like Fatboy slim used to with the more popular music listeners back in the day.

I left the show last night complaining about how awful it was with all of my friends and all the people around us.

My honest, first afterthought I turned and said to my brother was "It feels like the Emperors new clothes story, like we’re supposed to think this is cool but really, its just badly thought out rubbish and if you pretend not to like it, others around you might not think YOU were cool" This was always kind of like it was at his earlier shows but, generally the stuff he was doing back then WAS ground-breaking and something a bit special. It’s not cutting edge stuff anymore, I find it all a bit old and stale.
The Sheep on the ground floor didn’t need the wool pulling any further over their eyes as they were cheering everything he did and said for no apparent reason.

The visuals were also the other thing that let me down on the night, I’ve always been amazed by the visuals he has produced in the past, I don’t know if he’s fallen out with his art department or something but the stuff on the screens last night was RUBBISH, I could have done better animations myself in Photoshop.

Back to the music...
Every time we got a glimmer of a track we recognised we all went mad for it as it gave us something to cling onto AND HOPEFULLY HAVE A LITTLE DANCE TO!!!! and then as soon as you get into it (I’m talking 10 seconds maximum), the song was changed and we're left stunned and not enjoying ourselves again.

My friends suggested it was like watching a B-BOY / Scratch competition that wasn't very good. If we had wanted that we would have gone to the B-Boy championships at Brixton, we didn't want that, we wanted a little dance and to listen to some amazing tracks, the usual DJ Shadow experience but sadly, I’m afraid I’ll never go see him again. He is a proper sell out and this tour REALLY lives up to its name. Think of British gas coming in and Hard Selling central heating to your 90 year old Nan like on Rogue Traders, then put yourself in your nans shoes and you’ll know kind of how I felt last night.

If you go to the next show and you feel the same as me, make sure you let him know with a chorus of Boo's

I hope this ends up happening during the tour so that Shadow gets to know he's not fooling anyone.

Extract from The Emperors new clothes:

"During the course of the procession, a small child cries out, "But he has nothing on!" The crowd realises the child is telling the truth and begins laughing. The Emperor, however, holds his head high and continues the procession."