Eva Says: The Shadow Knows

Concert reviews. We’ll have at least one a week of the one show we’d actually go to even if we weren’t getting in for free. I’d write it myself, but frankly, the pay stinks. That’s why we’re sending Eva Liao. Because she is young and hungry and we are old and full. Eva is 22 years old and from Los Angeles. Her favorite band is the Velvet Underground. That’s why we hired her. Eva goes to Temple. Some would call her an intern, but we call her Editorial Assistant because we believe the media should empower young people, not belittle and exploit them. But that’s just us.

Eva Says:shadow.jpg
With all the critics hating on the recently dropped The Outsider, I was a little worried. To be let down by DJ Shadow would be heartbreak. Ever since Entroducing… opened my eyes to the psychedelic possibilities of electronica, I?ve always considered Shadow a dear friend I never met. As if he knew what we were all thinking, Shadow set the ground rules: “Don’t read all that bullshit on the Internet. Decide for yourself.” I kinda felt bad, like I didn’t have his back. And then it was all seductive sound and disorienting visions. Head-fucking visuals of magazine pretties morph from models to monsters. Then a large baby’s head floats above Shadow, flashing his Devil eyes. And then a CGI Bush wielding a chainsaw. Wow. But the trance breaks when Chris James rocks the mic. His Thom Yorke impression sounds at cross-purposes with Shadow’s prismatic beats and memmerizing loops. And he clashes with my man Lateef the Truth Speaker. Word, that. Still, by the end we’re all begging for more. We have made our decision, Shadow: We are still friends. A-