DJ SHADOW ENRAPTURED THE WEBSTER HALL CROWD

Mix master DJ Shadow stormed through the Big Apple on his Action Adventure tour with a Wednesday night show at Webster Hall, an outing which is this musical maestro’s first extensive show run since 2017. Joshua Paul Davis, better known as DJ Shadow, revealed during his set that he had wanted to play here earlier, but that the COVID pandemic had gotten in the way, and that it had been 7 long years since he last played NYC. Poignantly, I had first seen DJ Shadow spin almost 25 years ago in 1998 at a small record store appearance up the road at Virgin Megastore, and the first time I saw a full show of his was right at this very venue Webster Hall in 2006, when I mostly knew this venue as a sweaty meat market dance club, but it turned out to be the perfect time and place for Shadow to make the whole crowd go off, and I remember that being a amazingly magical experience. I had picked up his debut album Endtroducing….. when I was still working at a record store back in 1998, and I have since truly coveted that vinyl, but I really didn’t think at that point that many more people would know who he was, but I was pleasantly surprised by the packed crowd at every event I’ve ever seen him play, and his fans are serious beat fiends to the end. This sound master clearly knows how to get a crowd into a show, and much like he lulls you into a trance and carries you through a whole album and before you know it its hours later and you’ve had it on repeat the whole time, this man will hypnotize you and have the beats of all the thoughtfully recycled beats take you to other worlds.

DJ Shadow at Webster Hall

Opening the show was a Portuguese DJ and music producer Miguel Oliveira aka Holly who was a solid sound mixer. He made quite a name for himself in the world of electronic music over the last 6 years, especially producing artists like ProfJam, Dengaz, Bloody Jay, Slow J, and Papillon. He has a real chill style that takes its the time for experimental excursions.

DJ Shadow

Holly

DJ Shadow clearly took his time off during the pandemic to produce an epic new effort called Action Adventure, and he played much of the album during his set. His signature identifying sound of early era hip-hop nostalgia feelings still reigned supreme over his music, but it was the unexpected swells of soundscapes and aggressive arpeggios setting everyone on fire that really sent his sent the melodys into a real interstellar voyage territory. Like star dust dead suns going on to gather with other materials to form new suns, DJ Shadow carefully crafts his recycled material and builds something brand new and otherworldly. He spun some classics into the mix, and he blasted away with new stuff, but it was always captivating, and I danced harder than I have in ages.