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I was super stoked the day I bought tix to see M.I.A. (with Datarock, The Carps and Holy F**k). I was even more super stoked when Klye told me that we had a photo pass!! Front row? YES PLEASE! *pant, pant, hyperventilate, pass out*

Kat’s gonna fill you in on Datarock, so I’m gonna get straight into the meat of this - M.I.A. is A-M.I.A.-ZING. (Sorry, I had to do it). Her V-Fest set was superb, and I was expecting only awesomeness on Saturday. Mostly, I got it.

Let’s get the bad news over with first: sound at the Kool Haus SUCKS BALLS. It sounds like a hot pile of ass. If you weren’t very familiar with M.I.A. and you went to this show, I can see you having reservations simply based on the sound quality. I called my friend during “Sunshowers” and I’m pretty sure it sounded like a butchered robot. I just used the word “sound” like seven times.

But it doesn’t matter, cause I love M.I.A. and I’m sure 99% of the audience were there to dance and admire. Before her set, the DJ teased the audience with a loop of “XR2″, and they went mental. When the beat for “Bamboo Banger” kicked in and M.I.A. appeared onstage in a silhouette, the energy was so thick, I could snack on it with some nacho chips.

After three songs, I ventured back into the masses and joined the dance party. Seriously, I’ve never seen a Toronto audience so dance crazy - it was awesome. And the air was so hot that a pipe on the ceiling formed condensation and was LEAKING on the crowd!

M.I.A. knows how to captivate. With just a DJ, a dancer and her presence, she turns out a sick, sick show. She crowd surfs, she sings from atop the speakers, she even invites the audience to come up on stage during “Bird Flu” (funniest moment of the night - the DJ ordering people to leave the stage immediately with gun shot SFX, and the people not listening, but instead taking as many photos of themselves as possible). AND she sang all my faves: “Bamboo Banger”, “10 Dollar”, “Pull Up The People”, “Hussel”, & “Paper Planes”. I think tho, based on the excitement of the crowd that the best moments may have been “Bucky Done Gun” and show closer “Galang” (with the beat from Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss” thrown in for fun)!

Oh, and here are some pics

Posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 3:14 pm by Wendy and is filed under Concerts & Events.

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