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CONCERT REVIEW: Saul Williams @ World Cafe Live, 2/22
As a fan of Saul Williams, I've learned over time to trash all my expectations and approach every performance with an open mind. Best known as a beat poet, revered for his political lyricism and applauded for his alternative approach to hip-hop, Williams' only constant, it seems, is his ability to reinvent the wheel.
CONCERT REVIEW: Saul Williams @ World Cafe Live, 2/22
As a fan of Saul Williams, I’ve learned over time to trash all my expectations and approach every performance with an open mind. Best known as a beat poet, revered for his political lyricism and applauded for his alternative approach to hip-hop, Williams’ only constant, it seems, is his ability to reinvent the wheel.
That said, it was still a bit of a shock last night when I went to see him perform at World Cafe Live, only to find myself in the audience of an experimental noise show. Drum in hand and band behind him, Williams delivered some of his most musical work to date. The audience — a motley crew of college students and older fans — was transported to The Mudd Club, circa 1980, where heavy drums encourage nodding heads, and reverb reigns supreme. A trombone provided melodic variation over Williams’ cool delivery, which included everything from singing to speaking to screaming. Although his singing voice is nothing to write home about (it’s taken about two decades for anyone to really hear it), he crafts each sound with the same fierce passion that made him famous in the world of slam poetry, and his presence remains impossible to ignore.
For an audience that probably expected to hear a poetry reading, there was definitely a sense that boundaries were being tested. The opening act was a sonic collage from CX Kidtronik — the mohawked, space-clad veteran DJ and former band mate of Williams. His mix of booming voices over intergalactic white noise and classic hip-hop beats could be dubbed “ADD-core,” moving through sound the way one might surf the web. It set the tone for a night of unapologetic noise and forced us to widen our notion of what it means to hear music. When Williams took the stage, he continued with the light jabs to loosen up the audience. To those enjoying a light fare at the more expensive cabaret-style seating offered in the WCL downstairs, he said, “feel free to leave your tables. … If you guys feel like you can eat and listen at the same time, then we’re doing something wrong.” Though it may have seemed a bit jarring, this was the in-your-face guidance the audience needed — now we understand: a Saul Williams show in 2012 is a place to get your groove on and dance out loud.
Saul Williams will turn 40 at the end of the month (on leap day, to be precise). In a sense, his career has gone in the opposite direction one might expect, having come on to the scene with a verbose intellectualism then growing into a full-blown rock star. As much as the new stuff is a shock, Williams has always toyed with the musical elements of poetry. His diverse collaborations have included everyone from Erykah Badu to Nine Inch Nails, and these influences may have been the perfect precursor to an artist now firmly planted in the world of music. It was striking when Williams finally gave us a taste of his old self in an encore recitation of his 2001 “Untimely Mediations,” a rambling string of reference-packed alliteration that captures the poetic style Williams was first known for. Suddenly, the crowd sank into that hushed intensity of a church congregation, snapping and cooing admiringly at a particular word or phrase. Veteran fans spoke along with him, reminding us of the long and varied path his work has taken. Just when I thought the night would end on that final “OM,” the band returned for a final song, breaking us out of our nostalgia and riding out the night with a steady stream of bongos and horn.
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