Re-Viewed: M.I.A. at the Metro

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 29, 2005 3:52PM

This pains us, but sometimes Jim DeRogatis is right. Then again, if you say someone can be hit or miss that’s really not taking a huge stance because you will be correct in every instance. Anyway, that’s pretty much how Chicagoist feels about M.I.A.’s show last night at the Metro.

DJ Contra (no more Diplo, sorry) began with what had to be the most eclectic set we’ve ever seen. Starting out with Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” mixed into “Please, Mr. Postman” by the Carpenters. And then it just got better with Michael Jackson and the Ying Yang Twins before ending up with “When Doves Cry” by Prince. That was great!

To the beat of BowWowWow, Maya and her co-MC, Cherry, entered the stage and began with “Pull Up The People”. And only to prove that Kanye West is everywhere these days, DJ Contra mixed in Kanye’s now infamous statement regarding W’s dislike of black people before starting “Fire, Fire”. The songs were not as energetic as on the album and Cherry tended to upstage Maya’s vocals at times.

On “10 Dollar” the DJ mixed in Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” and following that “Push It” was played while Cherry did her best Salt-n-Pepa dance moves. The songs being mixed in were more surprising than the performance of Arular live. Ending out the set were “Bucky Done Gun” and “Galang”. After a brief break the show ended with “URAQT” while ladies handpicked by M.I.A. danced on stage.

The show was only an hour including the DJ’s set – quite short. Chicagoist loves the album and gets our groove on to it all the time, but for the money we’d prefer that M.I.A. do a little less agitating and lot more rapping. Of course with only one album – this is difficult to achieve, but we would have preferred being amazed by new M.I.A. songs and not the DJ’s mixing prowess.