Mashin': DJ Shadow Impresses At Stubb's

DJ concerts are a dicey proposition: like hip-hop, these artists are usually studio wizards, not live performers. Apart from an amazing Underworld show many moons ago, we've rarely seen a DJ show that impressed consistently. Enter DJ Shadow. His Sunday night gig at Stubb's featured a well-rounded, career-spanning selection of material, very impressive visuals, and two guest vocalists that added a truly live dimension to the show.

After a spoken intro at the early hour of 8:15pm, Shadow started with crowd-pleasers like "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt" and "Six Days." He even threw in a bit of UNKLE's "Be There" to cover all the bases. Visuals were synced to the songs, providing a nice distraction when one tired of watching Shadow scratch or twiddle dials on his mixer. When he got to material from new album The Outsider, a collection of low-budget rap videos that looked like Eric B and Rakim clips accompanied the tracks. It gave the songs some vintage flair and (again) added something fun to the concert experience.

Toward the show's close, Shadow brought out Stateless vocalist Chris James to reprise his vocals on "You Did It", the new album's best moment. James stayed for one additional song, and then guest Lateef The Truth Speaker finished out the show by guesting on Shadow tracks and performing his Fatboy Slim collaboration "Wonderful Night." The crowd was excited, and the performers took notice. They stopped on several occasions to both compliment the audience and complain about less receptive cities on the tour like Dallas. Shadow finished by saying: "Sometimes you're not sure when you make music if it's true to you, or if it's any good, but it's nice to know that there are cities like Austin that will always come out and listen. As always - best city of the tour." That pretty much says it all.

To watch some of the concert visuals, click on the jump.