Radio G String

Saul Williams certainly has enough ideas, beats, and mind-bending lyrics to fill a good set, so it’s slightly surprising he uses his A-game so sparingly. 

Too much of the music tonight came from his Trent Reznor collaboration Niggy Tardust – a concept album that holds a mirror to mainstream ideas of race, hiphop, rock, etc. – but sadly most numbers don’t work live: too much space; too much noise; not enough of the aforementioned mind-bending.

To be fair, they (Williams, guitarist, keyboardist, DJ) do occasionally hit their stride, and when they do, it’s fantastic: the likes of, ‘Black Stacey’ ‘Tr(n)igger’, ‘Break’, ‘Niggy Tardust’, ‘Untimely Meditations’, etc. get the whole place jumping. But it’s when his band shut up and it’s just Williams and a mic: that’s when things get really good – a memorising intensity and a relentless flow of his lyrics containing, what it seems like at the time, profound answers to questions asked too much or not enough.

That’s what you want out of a Williams gig: to be battered by endless ideas and thoughts delivered in such an intense way all you can do is stand there and go ‘… wow…’ And he can, and does occasionally, do that; but not enough. 

He plays for almost two hours: roughly 40 minutes can started a revolution in your mind; roughly 1 hour 20 reminds you that you’ve just paid far too much for cheap lager and need to pee.