The Roundhouse is round. MF DOOM (or DOOM as he now prefers, perhaps due to potential changes in mask creation materials) is also round. Coincidence? Probably. Not that such shallow things make the slightest jot of difference to an artist’s worth, but being the first time I’ve seen DOOM in the flesh, I understand now why he’s so keen to draw the attention to his face. Putting aside the shallowness however, the wrongness that permeated through this show wasn’t aesthetic alone. With the whole show streaming online simultaneously as part of Lex Records’s tenth anniversary, I had assumed the stage times were going to be pretty clear cut, but true to his difficult reputation, DOOM didn’t turn up on stage in his leafy, camouflaged outfit until 21:30, half an hour late. Shouldn’t be a big deal though right? These things happen, yeah?
As the opening notes of the seminal Madvillain track Accordion back DOOM and his assistant, it’s immediately apparent that the sound tonight is going to be nothing short of awful. Playing to an iTunes instrumental playlist, which sees multiple songs cut part way through to speed the set up, the volume struggles to compete with talking volume. Only the low end cut through sonically whatsoever as said accordion is only distinguishable from memory. With these early disruptions, the atmosphere feels more subdued than expected for a Saturday night show and it’s not till the distinctive bass line of Americas Most Blunted kicks in the the mass of white, middle-class men move pump their arms up and down in synchronised appreciation. None of this was helped by a giant projected stage backdrop of a frozen video still of DOOM’s face itching to move into the video which was evidently frozen. The problems weren’t resolved until the last throws of his set with even DOOM himself trying to solve the problems at one stage, resulting in a giant Mac desktop beamed to the audience for quite a few songs. As the deflating set continued, it was hard to tell whether the chorus of OOO sounds were chants of “Doom!” or just people booing.
Within thirty minutes, DOOM was already shutting down to make way for Ghostface to hopefully salvage something out of the night before the much awaited and much postponed DOOMSTARKS collaboration. The moment Ghost hits the stage, the volume’s whammed up, there’s no Mac to be seen and he and his hype men waste no time launching into the Fishscale highlight, Be Easy. However once again Ghostface is opting for the medley approach as barely a verse is delivered before we’re moving on to the next track. It’s an ADD induced onslaught of one track snippet after another which perversely sees the microphone levels on Ghost’s hype men broadcast louder than his own. The stop start nature is so disruptive to the flow that any attempts to dance or get caught up in the moment were near impossible. This was never more apparent than during a Wu-Tang medley that was surprisingly lead by his hype men as an barrage of Wu back catalogue were spat out rapid fire in a move that came across as lazy. This is confusing. Ghost is better than this. His solo output is forward thinking and recorded he continues to be the most exciting, relevant member of the Wu-Tang Clan yet here he is nostalgic for the good ol’ days.
Barely thirty minutes into the set and Ghost’s quantity over quality approach is bundling off the stage, we assume to make way for the long delayed, much talked about DOOMSTARKS collaboration finally seeing the light of day. Despite the earlier setbacks, the anticipation is still keen throughout the crowd to finally hear these two masters combine their skills to hopefully produce something greater than the sum of its parts. At this point, perhaps all can be forgiven through a dazzling display of flow and showmanship that’ll leave the crowd reminisce fondly about being there for years to come, telling their kids and their kids and actual kids even though goats don’t speak English. I mean, it’s not as though the show’s been a complete disaster, just that it should have been so much more. Maybe with these problems out of the way, like Cassius Clay, we’ll see an ending worthy of the potential.
Nope, houselights. Thirty pound per ticket for half an hour of DOOM and Ghostface apiece without the collaboration. Fool me once, shame on you…
