Another pick of the week at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood presents UK masters of the remix, Fila Brazilia. This show was sponsored by a certain radio station, and as usual it was packed to capacity from the minute the doors opened.

These are not, however, the music loving fans that pleasantly show up expecting a great show. These are the local LA "Hipsters." Aaaarrrghhhh!! Basically, this means leather jackets for the guys and short skirts for the women. . . and yes, these ARE the beautiful people.

I personally hate these types of crowds, but i would rather go and see the performance than miss out in most cases. Unfortunately, these people always feel they have to shout over the music to be heard, so the quality of the show is always slightly diminished.

Upon arriving at the show i realized that two of my old employers were opening the show with DJ sets. I caught the tail end of DJ Santo and Tikihutt's set and they had a good groove going on; the crowd did seem into it, all things considered. (Yeah, I saw your head bobbin', you trendoid you!) I've seen the guys spin many times and i have to say they create an atmosphere very well. They always use different tracks and spin everything from down-tempo to deep-house to funk. Of course, the constant hum from endless conversations never went away, but it could be tuned out after a while.

I left for a moment to get a drink and on my way out i overheard someone say "I don't know who's playing tonight, but I think they are Brazilian and they play bossa." I couldn't stand it any longer so I politely informed this ignorant bloke that Fila Brazilia were in fact British and didn't even play bossa really.

Fila Brazilia then slipped on stage and started mixing some records of their own for about half an hour of just spinning. Finally, they switched to the live instuments (maybe the crowd was just too loud?). From this point on they played a tripped-out type of funk over a tape of samples and mixes. Yeah, i think playing to tape is pretty lame too, but when your group is only enough for the staples (guitar, drums, and bass) something has to suffer. We all know how good they are at mixing so it's nice to see they can really play as well. They jammed out for a good hour or so and didn't stop, neither did the incessant rumbling of the non-lookers.

Aside from the ignorance and complacency of the audience I really enjoyed this show. I thought it was great to see a group so well known for turntable and programming stylings to get up and play a hour set of jamming funk tracks on live instruments.

In any other city this show indeed would have rated higher in my mind . . . one the pitfalls of living and being young in The City of Angels.