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Review of Hard NYC
Die Antwoord steals the show, M.I.A. disappoints
Photo: Brian Reilly Photography, via Flickr
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Through all the backlash—the New York Times article, the subpar third album, her occasionally less-than-truthful assessment of Sri Lanka—I’ve been on M.I.A.’s side. After all, she knows a lot more about Sri Lanka than I do, and more importantly, she’s a musician who (usually) makes good music, including one of the greatest pop songs of the past 10 years, “Paper Planes.” But after her performance at Saturday’s Hard NYC, I’m not sure what to think.
First, the good. That would be Die Antwoord, who stole the show. The South African-duo, Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and their DJ, Hi-Tek, sound like no one else out there with their mix of redneck and gangster cultures in America incorporated with lyrics in both English and Afrikaans (think Ali G, if he were a successful rapper). All I knew about the group was what I had learned from their now-famous YouTube videos (and that David Fincher wants to cast Yo-Landi as Lisbeth Salander in his version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), but by the end of their performance, I was ready to pre-order their first album, $O$, which comes out in September on Interscope Records. They were funny, sexy, engaging and every time I looked at Ninja, I thought of Ron from Party Down. That always help. Die Antwoord was the highlight of Hard NYC.
Sadly, the rest of the lineup disappointed. I had hopes for Sleigh Bells, whose Treats is one of my favorite albums of the year, but they sounded out-of-place, both in terms of the lineup around of them and also because they were playing outdoors, which didn’t do them any favors. British dubsteppers Skream + Benga were entertaining for about 30 minutes—but their set lasted over an hour, and even a sample from Doctor Who (“Exterminate!”) couldn’t help the audience’s waning enthusiasm.
And then there was M.I.A. Arular and Kala are great albums because they successfully blend together M.I.A.’s clever lyrics with a unique blend of musical styles. Her latest, MAYA, is more grating and sporadic. The Hard NYC crowd heard more of latter than the former. Supposedly, she was having problems with the mix and, according to her Twitter, even the stage was coming apart: “fuck technology! even the stage broke + parts of it fell off in the storm.” Ah yes, the storm. About an hour in to her set, after a verison of “Teqkilla” that dragged on for some 10 minutes, lightning could be seen in the distance. Then rain. I’m not one of leave shows early, even when it’s pouring, but by this point, I had had enough of M.I.A. and her surprising lack of stage presence (she spent much of the time either hovering in the back or dancing not to the crowd, but for herself), undecipherable vocals and beats drowned in noise. Not even the promise of “World Town” could keep me there.
Maybe the fault lies with both M.I.A. and the sound crew. After all, I could hear was bass and feedback, but it seemed like M.I.A. didn’t really try to overcome these obnoxious faults. Considering this was essentially her festival, she owed the crowd better. They even started booing at one point. I’m still on your side, Maya, but maybe spend more time on performing and perfecting “Tell Me Why” than spitting on a photographer during your next festival stop?