Rapid action

Rapid action

Back before most of us knew what a mashup was, Z-Trip had already moved the art of playing two different songs at once on to the next level, and closing out the Red Marquee on Friday night from 3:30 to 5am, he pulled out all the turntable tricks in what felt like basement party. Just to give an example, he cut “we don’t need no water let the motherfucker burn” into the chorus of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, then segued over to the hook of House of Pain’s “Jump Around”, then a snippet of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”, which of course led into the theme from Rocky…and that probably took all of 5 minutes.

A 90-minute Z-Trip set is like a history lesson in rock and hip hop, and odds are you’ll know almost every song he plays, samples or cites – and I guess you could consider that both a strength and a weakness. The pacing however is always perfect. Every time a track you love pops up in the mix, you get the thrill of hearing it, but he never wears out a tune by playing it too long – like Jay Z says, it’s “on to the next one”. And on the turntables, he’s got mad skillz no doubt.

The crowd was however pretty light, probably because the Orange Court was full till dawn for All-Night Fuji and The Palace of Wonder also drew a healthy turnout.

Check the photo report.