(aside from the N.Y gig) was at the legendary live music venue the Adam and Eve in digbeth with two of my favourite bands – The Hidden Half, and Mr Elephant favourites, the mighty Mama Matrix.
I used to go to the adam and eve pretty regularly when friends Steve and Beppa used to run their weekly live gigs down there. It was always a place where you were guaranteed a nice vibe, good music, and easy going late hours all in a nice warm space.
I haven’t been for over 4 years and even though i’ve played with mama matrix a few times now, i wasn’t sure what to expect, or what kind of crowd there would be imagining there’d be a mix of ages and tastes, and potentially a lot of people who preferred live music environments to the club dj type gigs.
With that in mind I’d got myself a scratch based set together for the first hour to build up from the spanish acoustic sound of Hidden Half, into the raucous balkan energy of Mama Matrix. For the second hour i thought it’s either going to be drum and bass set, or bham opera after party style, and by 8pm, thanks to my girlfriend and a final practice session the nerves had dissapated.
When i got there, the nerves started again, as it was absolutely rammed, with no space for decks, and no extra leads or tables to put them on. We cobbled together a table out of beer crates and a bass amp, and managed to squeeze it all into the corner next to the in house mixer.
First up were the hidden half, who bought some beautiful spanish vibes to this little corner of digbeth. 3 multi-talented musicians make up the half, with Amrita on vocals and flute, Paulo on percussion and vocals, and spanish guitar from Mark (who i’ve not met but was suitably mesmorised by his playing!)
Next up was my first set which consisted of my 2nd live outing with the scratch deck and an intro on the mic. We took it from reggae to quantic style house, and it went down better than i could have hoped for, leaving a nice warm connection with the crowd.
Mama Matrix onstage soundcheck was in similar diy fashion and prompted a couple of extra tunes which provided perfect flow and a nice feeling of working as a team, which as a dj is always nice.
When the mics were all working they launched into a “stonking” set, with each member adding their own charm and personality into the mix. Daz with his charismatic charm and powerful vocal/guitar delivery, ann with her mind blowing violin technique and expressive warmth, mark with his innovative tuba basslines, and freestyle ability, and mike with his awesome drumming, and range of mouth pieces (i saw 3 but could only name the kazoo!) Joels guantanamo bayray character and awesome lead guitar playing was unfortunatly not able to perform due to some unfortunate news, but the sound that the other members produced meant they managed to pull it off in a big way, leaving no one sitting in the adam’s main room, (and making it very difficult to get to the toilet or bar while they were playing!)
My second set started with Django Reinhart, picked up through senser, and was littered with ska, funk, indie dance and soul, and i even got to drop 2 drum and bass tunes in there, and do a bit more scratching. The response was amazing, and as i didnt settle on one genre for more than 2 tunes, every seemed approving and there was some lovely comments from some musicians i think in brum.
The venue has asked us back to do it again, which would be great as the mamas always attract a nice crowd, and i’ve been asked back to dj again from the lovely manageress Katie, so lookin forward to more djing with bands in the coming months.
– April 7th 2009
