Thievery Corporation (w/ the Roots) show review

May 28
Plaza of Nations

It pisses me off. Thievery Corporation starting at 7:30pm on a Friday evening to a mostly hip hop audience who mostly arent even there yet. There were some Thievery heads out there, early but to have a my musical heroes play to a dead audience in my city is simply unacceptable to me. But I do accept that I able to meet Rob Garza and Jah Rootz of the band after the show and I also accepted with glee, the CD that Rootz gave me of his solo stuff (as See-I with his MC partner, Zeebo).

I had already been fortunate enough to see a proper Thievery show in November of 2002. So, another chance to see them (on the same bill as the Roots, no doubt) was still icing on the cake. Since both the Roots and Thievery are live performers in concert unlike 95% of their respective genres mates (though many are hoppin on the wagon these days), I really thought it would be a great chance for beat heads in the city to experience what hip hop and ‘downtempo’ live performance can really be. But you cant expect everyone to be down to the Plaza of Nations a couple hours after work on Friday, ready to see a show. Also, that the show was more the ‘Roots w/ Thievery Corporation’ as the opening act didn’t draw out too many Thievery heads as I would have liked to have seen. But it was still a pretty diverse hip hop audience as the Roots do have.

Back to Thievery’s performace. As I was coming in, they were kicking ‘Facing East’ with their band of 6 musicians: a drummer (Black), perscussionist (White), bassist (looking to be of Indo or Middle Eastern origin), sitarist/guitarist (White) and then the two individuals who make up Thievery Corporation, Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. The vocalists present were Pam Bricker (Euro-American), Lou Lou (who I believe is French Iranian) and then the Jamaican MC tandem of Jah Rootz and Zeebo. Emilianna Torrini (Icelandic) was not present, nor was Notch (Jamaican).

Thievery Coporation is truly a post-turntablized music era, global collective, in sound, musicianship, and performance. They combine music from the American soul-jazz-funk-hip hop tradition, Jamaican dub/reggae, Brazilian bossa-nova/samba and other Latin influences, Indo and Middle eastern percussions and instumentation, and retro-espionage and porno-ish cinematic soundtrack scapes into a post hip hop and ‘electronic’ world of DJ based music production that can only be called Thievery Corporation.

Today, though, as diverse as they are, music is just diverse period, with the use of sampling and electronic production spearheading the electic creativity we so often hear. But Thievery Corporation is one of premier ensembles that bring it all together without cheaply and vainly stealing beats and samples from around the genres; they do it with proper musical respect and hommage (contrary to what their name might suggests, you’ll never hear them do a staple-sample hip hop version of Seven Nation Army, unlike some local acts we know). In fact, it is be fitting to say they ‘incorporate’ their influences into song, they do not rip-off music.

They go from the serenely ambient and jazzy to the tribal rhythmic break beats of old-school percussion. They symbolize concretely that music is one language in one way or another. Groove is groove, funky is funky, ethereal is ethereal, sonic is sonic, beats are beats.

On the CD that Jah Rootz gave me, its primarily an ambient downtempo, dubb/reggae episode but sprinkled with Indian sitar vibes and funky, laid back, break beats (that is typical of the staple Thievery sound). Categorical or genre limitation is not something that is probably mentioned around the studio with them very much when they get down to business.

Many groups, like the Black Eyed Peas, are always commented on for their diversity (the BEP’s are Black, Black-Filipino, and native American, with the new Anglo homegirl). But the groups usually always say ‘its not something we thought about or did intentionally to LOOK diverse,’ its just the way we ended up being.

I would have to believe that about Thievery too. Rob Garza and Eric Hilton met and formed the basis of Thievery Corporation around their mutual musical tastes. And today they are incorporating their influences into their own sound. If you’ve listened to them for a while, it DOES just start to sound like Thievery Corporation and you almost forget that many of the song elements are from hugely different parts of the globe.

Music is music.

This review was written by Boon Kondo of Schema Magazine

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