Gilkisons Dance Studio, Perth, Australia.

Welcome to Perth - "where the digging sucks".

We have a famous mining industry, but I don't think that was what Shadow was criticizing in the above blog excerpt. Nay, I fear that the ginger turntable wizard is in fact putting the boot into us lot, the local fans. It's kind of hard to get dissed by one of your idols and not take it to heart. In fact, this is the first time I've ever been slagged off by a musician, excluding the time Luke roasted me for rating Ghostface Killah, and whilst a personal assault emanating from someone as all round magnificent as Luke smarts, this jibe may bruise deeper still. I feel especially chump-like given that in my review of that 2006 Perth gig I saluted the big-up crowd response and blessed JD's "sincerity" in thanking us. There blows all my journalistic cred. Yet here I am once again, laying myself at the dude's feet like some docile hostage.

It's billed as an "intimate evening" with Shadow, so we're all shoe-horned into a small room with breathing room only. It seems to work. The greeting is effusive; the atmosphere is on. Shadow, who could talk the hind legs off a stable at the best of times, welcomes us, apologies for not really having got the set as he wants it yet, then lays out an almost identical opening half hour to last time. There's more scratching this time around and overall more Shadow involvement. It could be a little predictable, but its a tonic always worth swallowing when the likes of Be There, Changeling, Six Days and Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt are main ingredients. And just when we're expecting Lateef the Truth Speaker to emerge from the wings, we get Blackalicious' rhyme guru Gift of Gab. A man with no small stage presence, largely due to the evidence that he's no stranger to pies, or whatever the Bay Area equivalent of pies are, they rifle through some of the biggest Blackalicious gems, Deception, Make You Feel that Way and A to G, lovingly linked together with some free-styling. There's a call and response thing that is weak. Really weak. God knows why everyone else seems pretty frisky. Especially the crunk-a-lunkers who were jacking their way through 3 Freaks next to me. In fact this show more legit out-and-out dancing than anything I've been to for so long, GoG shouts "louder" for all he can but it ain't raising the desired decibels. Maybe it's a 20th Century thing. GoG is possibly one of the nicest surprises I've had all year, and goes an acre towards missing out on Blackalicious last time they were in town. There's only one thing better than that - no Chris James. Hallelujah! We celebrate with the Metallica sampling, math crunching bass-monster The Number Song and the revelation that it is possible to dance and head-bang at the same time. Shadow's Organ Donor solo even comes with a disclaimer, that tells us to stop whinging that he's done this before and get clapping. Sure he's been doing this routine off and on since '97 but it has us all raving and lathering like wild chumps poleaxed on senselessness.

And the encore; fuzzy rock tedium over lightening speed breakbeats. Ambitious? The drums are stacked and layered but still buried under the orange fuzz-bomb guitar. There's more to crafting than just turning the GUITARS way up. It all sounds a little dated, compared to Endtroducing which hasn't aged a jot, and you sure as Hell can't dance to it. Although Mac throws a bloody good fit to it. Luckily Midnight in a Pertfect World makes for the perfect nightcap, and how. Everything's sinks into an orange haze. The smaller room has worked charm. There's not an unmoist body in sight.

So do I forgive the fucker? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Transcribed by ReverendChris

PS: Getting back to that blog entry I reprinted at the top of this article; is it me, or is just a little bit egotesticle to describe your own album as "probably one of the most diverse records ever made"? Especially when its a pale flicker of your previous work