In thinking about THEESatisfaction, it is hard not to make comparisons between them and their collaborators–and Seattle brethren–Shabazz Palaces. This isn’t because of their music since both groups take different approaches towards hip-hop. It is because of their stage performances. I am still thinking about this, so I will talk about the openers first.
When I walked into The Mill, the first thing that I noticed was the old school hip-hop being spun by DJ Rich Rok. While it wasn’t necessary rocking, I always find it nice to listen to classic tracks. This was fairly routine, so I stepped out for a second to the front room. After having a discussion about various forms of destruction, I came back in to see something that I wouldn’t have expected during a DJ set: a live conga player. Rich Rok’s buddy added another positive dimension to the set. He also rapped out parts of A Tribe Called Quest songs very well, exhibiting solid hip-hop head knowledge. After a couple more jams, the duo signed out.
Cuticle came up after a small pause and brought the same flavor that he always does. If you’ve not yet seen Cuticle, I highly recommend that you do as he’s one of the best live acts based in Iowa City. On this night, his set brought a lot of the standard things I’ve come to expect from his set like deeply effected vocals and live sound manipulation. The overall set sounded like Balearic house and deep techno filtered through Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France”. It was a little bit noisier than I had heard from him recently, but I still found it to be a solid set, especially since they are always a little different every time. More importantly, it served as a nice introduction to THEESatisfaction.
THEESatisfaction came up on stage, plugged in a laptop, and just let it ride for 45 minutes. While this was different from Shabazz Palaces who did live programming and drumming, it did allow the ladies to do a couple of different things. For one, it allowed me to note how Catherine Harris-White was wearing some of the dopest shorts I had seen in a long time. They were a crazy Aztec pattern in monochromatic black and white. More importantly, the lack of live musicianship let them use more of the stage and do way more dancing. This dancing really accented the nice blend of soul, hip-hop, r&b and electro that the ladies were throwing down. Much like their male compatriots, the dances synced up well with the songs. For example, Stasia Irons followed Harris-White around the stage while they were doing a track about chasing a love interest. The dances were sometimes funny, but they were all entertaining.
Although the beginning of their set was lacking a little bit of excitement, it picked up speed like a snowball going downhill. By the halfway point of their set, I noticed that the tide was turning in THEESatisfaction’s favor. More people were up and standing in the sitting room that is The Mill. More and more people started to get into the groove of the show. By the end, the whole audience was just feeling the vibe, dancing and bobbing along to the beat. Their control was shown when they got the whole audience to clap along with them at the beginning of the track. Having been to a number of shows where artists try to get the audience to participate to no avail, I thought this was a rather impressive event. Furthermore, everyone was hanging on their music. A good example of this was, actually, at the end of their set when some hip-hop heads standing behind me just erupted when they heard the Anita Baker sample drop on the last track of their set. By that point, it was clear that THEESatisfaction had full control of the room, which is something that I hadn’t seen in a little while. Once they signed off, people ran (not literally) to the stage and started buying merch. This is a visual indicator of how I felt about the show as a whole. I was excited about this show beforehand, and they definitely did not disappoint. If I had more cash in my accounts, I would have bought their album myself.
Back to that original question about stage performances, both groups had great moves, but I have to give the edge to Shabazz Palaces. While THEESatisfaction was tight with their dance game, it is a little bit harder to slap skin blind while rapping. Even with their (only slightly) lesser dance moves, THEESatisfaction still brought it just as hard as Shabazz Palaces did in terms of beats and lyrics. If either comes back through this city, I will be right there in front watching them kill it.
