Jamie Lidell Went Hef as Poplife Went Seven

On one of those serene Saturday evenings, before The District’s dance punk deejays regulated the motions, before the masses were relegated to the covered walkways due to seasonal rain and left with nothin’ to do but be crowded like stereotypical Japanese ladies and eye the jellyrolled, drunkard chick (oh, yeah) and her interpretative dancing to LCD Soundsystem on an otherwise empty stage, before 'fro and Jewfro alike were decurled in the driving rainstorm...let me start over. In other words, before Poplife's seventh anniversary party went to shit, there was mister Jamie Lidell. –words by Josh Arcurio / ignore

The special-ness of this jaunt was enough to make a party sans a molesting uncle (aka Revolver to some). Jamie Lidell's ever-changing Motown-via-Berlin act was the main attraction, and baby, some shit was goin’ down. Fisting through a set comprising of Multiply's best, Lidell had the crowd at his robed back as he shifted gears from r&b crooning to layering vocal beats to traditional Warp-ish noise experiments (notably missing from his gig at this year’s M3).

Lidell excluded his typical unabashed exuberance, refusing to be ironic, detached or even exclusive. And who wants any of that at a b-day party? The crowd, some of whom were jerked into "Who IS that?"ing the nearest Pitchfork stringbean, grooved in the glow of Lidell's genuinely appreciative smile and his improved, more intimate one-man show (here’s a “no homo,” cut and paste). Seemingly on cue, the first raindrops fell (paste like you like it) as he announced the next song would be his last. By the time he was hunched over his equip table, tweaking knobs like a schoolyard bully titty-twisting geeks, and bringing the show to a final cacophony of noise, stagehands had created an impromptu canopy of garbage bags to protect the electronics from the pour. At this point, most Lifers had retreated into their mirrors, the suitable applause drowned out by revelers seeking a warm tee (preferably one with a phrase courtesy of Chuck Norris screen printed on it).