The LMFAO brand is pretty clear; drink, sex, and party endorsed by Patron and Lil’ Wayne. There’s not really much else to it in terms of what they’re rapping about. If you’re the bubblegum type, then be ready to get in touch with your inner horny teenager self. Unless you currently are a horny teenager, then you’ll fit right in, especially at the all ages Party Rock show at Congress Theater Sunday night.
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LMFAO, Schwayze, Paridiso Girls, Space Cowboy, Jump Smokers and the Far East Movement
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The Congress Theater
Chicago, IL
11/22/2009
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Out of the line up of openers, there was Space Cowboy, Paradiso Girls, Jump Smokers, Far East Movement, and Shwayze. I’ll mention the ones that had the most impact on me. Native Chicago Jump Smokers killed it with their single, “Don’t be a Douchebag,” and also provided the most memorable performance out of the openers with it. However, they did have some minor performance issues such as yelling into the mic and not being able to control their voices. It weakened their sound and presence along with the many moments of singing out of tune.
Paradiso Girls is a London based girl group formed by Interscope records who is following the trend of selling sex and liquor to teenagers. I couldn’t help but wonder how old they must be, and then I forgot how old I was? I don’t really know what to make out of that, and perhaps I needed a few more beers before I was really ready to see them, but that’s what openers are for. Even if I was drunk, I still don’t know that I personally would’ve dug their half lip-synced booty shaking performance.
Shwayze provided a fresh and different sound from the rest of the other groups. While many of their songs where on the ambient side and more relaxing they just weren’t that polished. The mix of the live instruments and DJ was always off and I was not convinced by their use of live instruments especially with one of their musicians attempting to juggle between the trumpet, keyboard, singing and drum set.
On the technical side of things, the look of Congress Theater seemed more suitable for a Shakespearean play or opera. It felt abandoned and dusty, which is pretty much what it sounded like; lots of reverb, very caverness, boomy and over-compressed. I suppose that style of music doesn’t call for a mix that is subtle or intricate, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard any live MC type performance that I thought sounded better than their produced album. At least when LMFAO took the stage, I could understand what they were saying, which is more than I can say for most MC groups in live performances, including Party Rock’s openers.
Despite all the problems, the inebriated fans didn’t care, and neither did I as it came time for LMFAO. I was tempted to just get wasted and just throw myself into the middle of the crowd, but then I restrained myself and thought that being stuck in a sea of grinding teenagers probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I have to say, LMFAO put on a good show: WWF like dialogue to segue in between songs, taking shots out of bottles on stage, a horny robot costumed character that they cleverly used to represent the auto-tuned parts of their songs, and also girls in thong bikinis bending over and spraying themselves and the audience with Corona. It was like something out of an MTV Spring Break in Cancun special.
What more could you ask for? The audience went wild for their Chicago version of, “I’m in Miami Bitch,” but the peak of their performance was at one point when they turned off all the lights, and walked off stage as if the concert was over. Everyone knew it was just a build-up to their best single, “Shots,” and so the crowd starting cheering and demanding, “Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!” When LMFAO started the beat back up, the crowd was ridiculous, poppin, cheering, and jumping, up and down, hypnotically.
Whether I wanted to or not, by the end of the night, I couldn’t get out of my head some classic LMFAO lyrics which I felt captured the essence of the experience, “Heads Down, Ass Up. This is how we like to F%&K.”
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