SAUL WILLIAMS @ La Tulipe

By Eli Levinson - Bender Night - 04/13/2008

As I entered La Tulipe on Sunday April 13th, I immediately got a feeling of anticipation. It came from behind the black doors that lead to the main room. The thumping beat emanating from behind those doors was a sign and I followed it into the packed main room. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Saul Williams!

The show started with just the band. The two programmers and guitarist were dressed like something out of a weird ‘80s horror movie, complete with neon hair and Beetlejuice-style black and white striped sleeves. They played and rocked the beats created by Trent Reznor for the latest Saul Williams album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!

The heavy industrial sound of the music, combined with the appearance of the band and the excitement of the crowd, provided the perfect setting for the entrance of Williams. And what an entrance it was. He came out, decked in a crazy headdress made of brightly colored feathers, tight pants and a whole lot of sparkledust on his face. He entered singing and dancing and was clearly intoxicated. His movements were exaggerated and over the top, but he was dancing, and the crowd loved it. Even when he climbed the speaker and fell on his face, the crowd loved him.

The man knows how to create an image. Using a highly effective yet extremely simple light setup, Williams managed to strike more awesome rock star poses (that actually did look cool and not forced) than any other performer I have ever seen. The response from the crowd ranged from wildly ecstatic to trance-like awe to a lesbian threesome right in front of the stage.

Williams is primarily a spoken word artist, that is to say that with his music, the emphasis is on the lyrics and the intricacies of the language. Unfortunately, this fact seems to have been lost in the effort to emphasize the atmosphere of weirdness and rock and roll. He must have had a hyperactive sound tech, or have simply not cared about his sound, because he had an effects set-up that rendered most of what he said incomprehensible to those who do not know his songs by heart.

The few times he did turn off the excessive delay and reverb were absolutely electrifying. His style of poetry is so complex and musical that it easily takes over a crowd. When he broke into a spoken word part (which he did only once, unfortunately), the crowd listened respectfully with rapt attention.

By the end of the night, Williams could just not leave. He loved the crowd, even taking the time in the middle of his set to hang out with us in front of the stage, singing and dancing like a madman surrounded by crazy fans. The band came out for an encore, and when it seemed like the show was over, Williams said "I feel like I'm just about to cum, I have to do one more."

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