Amateur overture

Here's the beef

Live Reviews

Experiment illness

GEEK RIOT: He might not admit it, but RJ enjoys giving heads what they want.

Hip-hop producer RJD2’s foray into indie rock was less favorably received than Eddie Murphy’s attempts at pop music — with all due respect, last year’s The Third Hand (XL) is the sort of disc that fans will play only once every half-decade to remind themselves how bad it is. The good news is that it doesn’t appear RJ’s insistence on artistic challenge will be his undoing.

Many didn’t expect RJ’s Paradise show last Saturday to sell out — result: many lurked outside groveling for tickets. As the club filled with young white people, it became clear that not everyone stopped liking (or, rather, started loathing) RJ when he traded his sampler for a Rickenbacker. Still, as the kid behind me in line confirmed, “Nobody is here to see him do the Third Hand thing.”

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RJ acknowledged that fans yearn for his beat science; right away he jumped behind his drum machine and punched up the celebratory horn-smoked “1976” and “Bus Stop Bitties” as neon stills and ancient gore flicks filled the background. He might not admit it, but he enjoys giving heads what they want. Hence his inciting a geek riot with an epic portion of his classic “Smoke and Mirrors.”

Few were excited to see him invite his band out, but he’s earned the right to push a few impossibly boring live cuts. “Have Mercy” is a song that, for the sake of irony, he should avoid in the future. But he didn’t abuse the opportunity: after three jams, he retreated into digital terrain with the mightily appropriate “Good Times Roll.”

Aside from a pair of Legend of Zelda themesong interludes and an impressive Super Mario Bros.–inspired encore, there were few surprises — which was a great thing. RJ has yet to amputate The Third Hand, but at least he realizes that the only thing more absurd than going to see a producer spin his own records is going to see a producer spin his own records and winding up a guinea pig in some half-cocked lightweight rock-and-roll experiment.

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