Sometimes it's strange to put a face to a name.
DJ Shadow has always stayed true to his name by making dark, enigmatic music, so seeing him bobbing at the controls in a green polo shirt and baseball cap was a little like meeting the Wizard of Oz.
Still it
was nice to get a glimpse of his unassuming personality, particularly after a charismatic opening set from Mos Def. The guy has so much charm and stage presence it didn't matter that it looked like he was wearing togs. Shadow might have stepped out of his own shadow, but he quickly reached great heights.
Physically, that meant climbing a ladder to a secondary stage built above the main stage, a grand perch that made it easy to watch his hands working. Musically he opened with the thunderous beats and instantly recognisable piano motif of Building Steam, the first of many classics from his groundbreaking first album, Endtroducing, which he mixed and mashed into tracks from his second album The Private Press with surgical precision.
A highlight was watching him play the organ line from Midnight in a Perfect World and cut it up before our eyes.
Sometimes the sense of awe was purely visual as the huge backdrop exploded with colour behind him. At times Shadow was a tiny figure in the centre of a fireball or imploding kaleidoscope; at others he was invisible among the floating shapes.
As rising water swallowed President Bush's crudely drawn face, the voice of David Banner ranted about Hurricane Katrina over a feisty new crunk track from his upcoming album. Not all of the new material worked live as when British singer Chris James joined Shadow on the lower stage.
Shadow also seemed to lose a few people when he played uncomfortably loud ragged tunes that left a few people stranded on the dancefloor like confused whales. So it was a relief when Lateef took over and whipped the room back into party mode. Had Mos Def joined in at the end they could have made an even bigger impression.
