missing is action

MIA in Marlboro country?

MIA did her thing last night at SOBs and it was interesting to see that after all of the touring and hype and backlash and defense and hoopla… she has not changed her stage show one iota. And please note: 90% of that statement is positive… but now the 10% dis.
Hot damn, here we go again…
MIA, who has embraced and adopted ALL things ‘21st century beat culture,’ can’t rid her sets of the dead air between songs! The mixtape paradigm, in which she absolutely lives, allows songs to take a backseat to the overall vibe… this is PARTY music (and I’m not even trying for a pun there, Tiger) which demands ‘FLOW’. ‘Flow’ is on the ‘Piracy’ mixtape. ‘Flow’ is achieved by her DJs providing the mix immediately before MIA’s set.
In the midst of any song the crowd is with her… I’M with her… but then there’s an awkward transition to the next song as if we were still bound to some ‘rockist’ rulebook to ‘respect’each tune. But even a good ‘rockist’ knows that the space between songs should be used to engage the audience (pull up the people… please). Hey we know she’s “the cool girl” with ‘just-one-of-y’all’ appeal in that she can’t sing, dance or rap at any particularly high ‘technical’ level… so she better max out on the stage-presence and turn the charm up to 11.
Let me put it simply: If she’s not going to go whole-hog on the crowd hype then Diplo (or Andrew or whoever) should throw on some hot beats that mix out from each song and in some case mix into the next. She can do a few ad-libs/dance-steps over some of the hot beats and lay in the cut for others. Is that too much to ask for?
Perfect example from last night: DJ Marlboro got back on stage in the middle of MIA’s set and smoothly brought in that Eurhythmics loop and took over the sound system for minute. The audience seemed ready to see MIA work the Favela beats into her set… maybe kicking a Brazillian-style karaoke rap… switching between DJs, possibly… upping the energy with a ‘mixage-a-trois’ …
But no.
The dead air was brought in right after the DJ Marlboro section.
The energy and fun in MIAs songs deserve to be maintained for the whole show.

More on DJ Marlboro tomorrow…
but in-between time...

DJ Marloboro Medley