Life In A Bungalo

M.I.A.
Terminal 5
October 19, 2007by Michael Dolan, Evil PR Guy

Seeing M.I.A.  at Terminal 5 is something like being caught in a riot, a bit like going to the Limelight circa 1992 and something like falling down the stairs of the Bedford L station. Terminal 5 is a monstrous space, and every inch of it was loaded with people from every strata of NYC nightlife ready to go bananas.

When M.I.A. hit the stage, to accompaniment of her DJ Low B, in front a huge video screen displaying patterns of her own design, a dance party several thousand strong started on the first beat. It seems that M.I.A. is usually described as a rapper, and that’s true - this gorgeous Sri Lankan refugee raps, but last night she was captain of the good ship party.

Never standing still for a second, and chanting, screaming and smiling along her with backup singer Cherry, she commanded the attention of every single eye, nerve cell and muscle in the joint. We’re talking a Jim Jones like ability to mesmerize crowds with her ultra catchy afro beat dance hall rhythms and killer dance moves.

I’m a sucker for accents, and her London inflected English echoed out of the sound system, which for a place as large as Terminal 5 is decent, but honestly should have been a bit a louder for the dance party that was going on. There was not an inch of free space anywhere in the club, yet everyone managed to dance and go berserk the entire set.

When she played ‘Bamboo Bangoo’ I though the club was going to collapse into a sinkhole and end up in a subway tunnel. It felt like the floor was bouncing, and that everyone in the crowd was solely focused and boogieing there ass off. I haven’t seen so many people having such a good time together at any show, with the exception of The Polyphonic Spree. We were treated to all the slamming songs off her newest, absolutely brilliant record ‘Kala’ including ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Paper Planez’, as well as some older bangers from her previous releases.

With  non-stop gunshot samples and videos of people dancing interspersed with all kinds of artsy images, M.I.A. invited the crowd on stage, and the bouncers were actually assisting people in getting over the barriers (which is something I have rarely seen in my 17 years of NYC show going) and launched into ‘Bird Flu’ which blew the place sky high. I’ve been listening to ‘Kala’ non-stop for the last few months, and it was cool to hear the slight variations in beat, samples, tempo and lyrics that M.I.A. and her crew broke out for the live show. Afrikan Boy, M.I.A.’s sidekick came out at the end of the set and did some dancehall style toasting and rapping, and it was a bit disappointing to be honest. It’s hard to make a shift from someone with the charisma of M.I.A. to a mediocre performer that the crowd was not that into.

Luckily, M.I.A. saved the best for last and her two song encore included ‘Amazon’, and my personal favorite song off ‘Kala’, ‘Boyz’. I had an ear to ear grin when she began the clucky -The-G-d’s-Must-Be-Crazy-esque Kalahari Bushman-chant that leads off ‘Boyz’. I was screaming myself horse yelling ‘How Many How Many Boys Are There? How Many How Many Boys’. I kept that grin all the way home on my long cab ride back to Brooklyn, and I even began proselytizing the cult of M.I.A. to my Tibetan cab driver.

Terminal 5 is not the best space for a show. It’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s unbelievably hot (I’m talking ‘94 Oi Skampalation at the Sweatlands women passing out on the floor hot), the sound system is weak for a place that big, and it’s very easy to get stuck in a spot that has a terrible view of the show. I’ll try to avoid going back there. That being said, I would return to see M.I.A.

Life in a Bungalo readers will probably hate M.I.A. It’s dance rap done by a beautiful woman who wears shiny pants. I however, enjoy very little more than a night of sweaty ass shaking, screaming lyrics,shiny pants and jumping around in my Prada’s. I actually have several huge blisters acquired over the course of last night. My take? M.I.A. is the total package. She has smart, political lyrics, great video, a slamming DJ and commands every inch of your attention span. She could be as big as Madonna, and after last night’s performance, she is well on the way to that place.