Tony Vegas at Dolans
New promoters Jazzmag introduced themselves with Tony Vegas
of the DJ crew Scratch Perverts headlining a Sunday gig in Dolans.
A decent sized crowd with more than a few "scratchin" trainspotters proved a
healthy turn out for this hip hop event.
Local DJ Andrew (a2df) showcased a solid two hour set of mainly hip hop
classics and old funk staples, cuttin and using doubles- entertaining both the heads and
the 'just out for the night' people. Keep an eye out for this guy.
Tony Vegas came on to a heavy New York beat and ran through many thug releases with
snippets of the big club anthems, Nas, Busta etc. Keeping the scratch heads happy with
patterns rather than routines, he gave the contemporary sound a loud run using a cd deck
for effects that built up unfortunately to a big beat scenario via the stone roses and a
prodigy work out. This suited a 'mad for it' student vibe i.e loud fast could be techno
but without being purist not the hip hop attitude that he could have represented with. A
couple of solid English ragga tracks were dismissed in this flood. I felt the turntable
work was for the sake of it rather than taking it anywhere, no pauses, no tracks getting a
chance to breathe, no change of pace. I wonder what he thought it meant? To the guy who
got up on stage and did the 'Keith Flint style' dance for ages in front of him- it
obviously meant getting fuckin hammered.
The big beat disease from the recent past was a vile thing. Cynically many Irish
"DJs" gleefully shared the poisoned chalice with the trail of Fat Boy Slims that
took the money back then. So what? Capitalism constantly creates these denominators but
hip hop suffered with its changes as well as being kidnapped before. I mistakenly hoped
that was over and was disappointed to be reminded of it tonight. Often the success of
events like tonight means more of the same being booked, I hope this is not the case. I
witnessed the same with the Herbaliser DJ in Galway a few months ago where the DJ linked
playstation style and the superficiality of much redundant "hip hop" noise with
the Cribs mentality- TV constantly feeds the tracksuit generation. Certainly DJ A2DF
came across with a freshness discovering the old with a decent sensibility and hopefully
this will be what future nights in Dolans will be about.
Seamus Flanagan