Gunshots by Computer
saul williams live
2008-04-24
By Carolyn Coleman

“Are You Looking For The Truth or For Another Fight?” 
The Fillmore East (Irving Plaza) New York City

Actor-Writer-Musician-Poet Saul Stacey Williams is touring to support his 2007 release, 
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust. Co-Produced by Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails, who said that who said that after his own recent dealings with record labels that they should release it directly) and mixed by Alan Moulder, this album is available only at the website niggytardust.com. Listeners can pay $5 to support the artist directly and be given the choice of downloading the MP3 version or the lossless FLAC version.
 
Saul made a stop in his adopted hometown of New York City to rock the rafters of the Fillmore East. Opening act and local Afro-Punk / self-proclaimed Geechee Goddess Warrior Tamar-kali graciously thanked Saul for “givin’ a sista some” and then proceeded to take the crowd on a heavy groove-laden Metal journey in merely 4 songs. Stage still smoking, The Dragons of Zynth stepped aboard. Nigerian fraternal twins fronting the Talking Heads with Everly Brothers vocal harmonies, yes, Psychedelic Afro Math Rock (they are produced by TV on the Radios’s Dave Sitek ) ! Winning extra cheers for the giant posters of Obama flanking each side of the stage. They ended their set with a cover of The Clash’s “Janie Jones”, which felt like the town criers announcing the arrival of the King as they passed through the forest.

Mr. Williams further added to the tension of the anxiously awaiting masses by arriving lastly to the stage after each band member. Once assembled, the NiggyTargdust Ensemble presented an audio attack of Civil War Native African American Dancehall Mash-ups versus Dirty South beats, between which Williams broke into poetic dialog and exchange with the audience, who cheered him on like a congregation feeling the Holy Ghost. Backing him up on this tour are CX KiDTRONiK’s hand-triggered banging drum machine beats and high energy freestyle synth/video game laser blasts, Davin Givhan on electric guitars, and Kwame Brandt-Pierce’s sonic glue of live computing and keyboards. In red velvet  pants, a navy blue Military  jacket flanked in purple, red and white pony hair,  blue and red feathers running through his Afro like a Mohawk (which his band members also donned) and gold leaf face and body paint he burst onto the stage and ran through the rafters…..literally.

Midway through the night he announced that his daughter and niece would be joining him onstage to dance and sing backing vocals, which led them to a Breakbeat fuzzed out cover of U2's "Sunday (Bloody Sunday)"   (also on the album)  and later on his signature hit  "List of Demands (Reparations)"  chorus "wah wah wah whut?!"  (currently  featured in A Nike Sparq Training Commercial) . When he gave the little girls props for inspiring his feathered accessories and war paint between tunes, they beamed over the entire crowd. Painfully adorable AND house-quaking. 

On Saul’s Myspace page, he includes Krishna, James Brown, Fela Kuti, John Lennon, Edith Piaf, Nina Simone, Leon Thomas, Miles Davis, Jimi, Harry Potter, Steve Biko, and Jesus in his roster of band members. And with his easy command of flowing between heavy dialect and stage-diving, he managed to instantly calm the crowd when a fight broke out by simply stating "how can there be a fistfight at a poetry meeting?!!" Then, proceeding to pop and lock onstage, thus further illustrating that this is how he battles "because fighting is so OLD", one could almost see these imaginary members dancing with him between the machine-induced smoke and colored lights.
 
The NiggyTardust Tour returns to the US at the end of August 2008.
 
 For more about Saul:
www.myspace.com/saulwilliams
www.saulwilliams.com
 
Images with Permission by: Nicholas Monaco/Prefix Mag

Carolyn Coleman is a freelance writer living in New York.