Fool's Gold Tour at Hiro 10/17/07

Just walked in the door from the Fool's Gold showcase at Hiro. Allow me to preface this by saying I was extremely torn about what to do this evening. After a lot of deliberation, my plan for most of today was to go to the Black Ghosts' set at the Delancey and then hop in a cab and go to Hiro. I got cold feet at the last minute so I just went straight to Hiro. I am SO glad I did. I'm sure the Black Ghosts were great. I witnessed them play a dope little set to a nearly empty room on Monday evening. It broke my heart.

In any case...I arrived at Hiro a hint after 11. My sole reasons for going to Hiro were A-trak & Mehdi and Kavinsky. Nobody else. When I arrived Kid Cudi was in the middle of his set. I wasn't impressed at all. I actually thought he was pretty bad...underwhelming lyrics, didn't flow well either. Cool Kids went on after him...I liked them a bit better. They were clearly better, more experienced rappers, but still they were just lacking something. They had a good flow and good beats, but their raps themselves were just kind of weak overall. There were a couple that were alright, but for the most part I was just feeling ehh about the whole thing. Kid Sister was on next. She had a lot of energy...but her voice wasn't great. On the first song you couldn't tell what she was saying. She also sounded like she was straining her voice a lot and it did not sound good. Out of breath too. On the upside...some dope samples! Sinden's Beeper and TTC's Telephone.

Now up until this point I was getting a bit annoyed that I had caught all these acts I could care less about, but was missing the Black Ghosts. But then...just past 12:30 DJ Mehdi and A-trak hit the decks. Had I gone to see the Black Ghosts I would have missed at least a half hour, probably closer to an hour if the Ghosts didn't start on time/ran late and you include getting up to Hiro from the LES.

From the moment they started their set I knew I had made the right decision. The floor was packed. Everyone was getting down. Immediately I thought of the Ed Banger showcase back in March...it had that everyone losing their shit, happy vibe. They played a ton of awesome shit. Some of it, in no particular order:

Justice -Genesis
Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler (A-trak's new remix)
Boys Noize - Oh!
Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler (original version)
Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control (Soulwax remix)
Boys Noize - & Down
Dj Mehdi -I Am Somebody into Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band's Apache into Justice's Let There Be Light aka ahhhhhh!!!!!!!
Justice - Phantom Part II
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You
Kanye West - Stronger
Daft Punk - Rollin' & Scratchin'
Uffie - Ready to Uff
Zongamin - Bongo Song
Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Digitalism - Jupiter Room
Busy P - Rainbow Man
Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman

At some point I worked my way back towards the restroom and who do I spot but James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) sitting on the benches. Saw him at the Syndicate party on Monday, read that he was at the 'Sup Magazine party last night...he's everywhere!

Anyway...shortly after I got back on the floor Kavinsky started. I can't remember much of what he played. I didn't know as much of it as Mehdi and A-trak's set. He played a lot of his own stuff (Wayfarer and Testarossa) which sounded great on a loud system and fit really well with everything else he was playing. That time I saw him at Studio B and couldn't get into it was a total fluke incident. Toward 3 you could tell he was kinda running out of stuff to play/was done playing for the 20 people that were left in the place. He put on the remix of Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name Of and then kind of scurried away once he got A-trak back on the stage. A-trak joked around briefly, put on a song, and thanked everyone for coming out, and then everybody started to gradually leave.

*dun dun dun* camera phone! I wasn't able to get any pictures of DJ Mehdi and A-trak because the crowd stormed the stage from the get-go and never really let up. By the time Kavinsky went on there were just a few people up there so you could see him through the crowd. And then some dude saw me taking a picture and made me hop up there which wound up being a lot of fun...and the pictures came out better than they woulda been: