Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > September > 15 > Entry
ACL: M.I.A.
American hip hop, United Kingdom electro, Jamaican dancehall, grime, Ragga and Brazilian baile funk were all blended into her DJ’s sampling soup, creating a music so unique that it had people dancing before they even realized their bodies were moving. And if the sound mix had been better, it’s very possible that the festival organizers might have shut down her performance based on its sheer explicit revolutionary nature and capacity to cause a riot.
With a phenomenal DJ that was cutting up polyrhythmic records like a razor on butter, M.I.A. raced through nearly a dozen songs that spoke of revolution, sexual liberation, female empowerment and cultural freedom.
When she vamped up her track “20 Dollars,” the samples of gun blasts echoed the polemic racing from her mouth. I’m gonna have to give you a little taste for you to fully understand how this young woman was obliterating the mic:
“With your feet in the air and your head on the ground/Try this trick and spin it, yeah/Your head’ll collapse if there’s nothing in it/And you’ll ask yourself, ‘Where is my mind?’/War war war/Who made me like this/Was it me and God in co-production/My devil’s on speed dial/Every time I take the wrong direction,” she sprayed with a high-pitched hiss in her upper vocal register.
Now, keep in mind this was just one verse of one song from her set — and every song was equally as venomous. I had never heard M.I.A. before this year’s ACL Fest. Now I’m a fan for life.
Toward the end of her set, the audience’s collective consciousness took over and about 100 people crossed the proscenium and joined M.I.A. on stage for a straight-up dance party. The beefy security guys were scrambling to make sense of the moment as M.I.A. encouraged the spontaneity. You didn’t know if someone was going to get hurt while everyone was having so much fun. The audience’s dancing was filled with lust and sweaty sexual tension. M.I.A. and her backup singer knowingly winked at each other as the stage literally rocked. The moment was filled with danger and barely controlled chaos. And it was utterly beautiful.
(M.I.A. will be back in Austin for a show Nov. 3 at Hogg Memorial Auditorium. Tickets, which are $25, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 21. Details here.)
(Photo by Brian K. Diggs AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: ACL Festival
Comments
When commenting, we ask that you keep things civil and abide by our Visitor Agreement. To report comment abuse, click here.
By "the" Tony Cooke
September 17, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
You do realize most the M.I.A. lyrics you’re quoting are lifted straight from the Pixies “Where Is My Mind?”, I hope! 20 Dollar is an excellent song and I love how she puts her on twist on the Pixies chorus. No one else has the brains, sass or background to rap about the cost of AK-47’s in Africa (once again, the song 20 Dollar) but M.I.A. does.
By k
September 18, 2007 12:16 AM | Link to this
That performance was among the best of my life. i was dancing so hard on stage