Hellooo, This Is M.I.A.

Where does the time go?

Last Thursday I hit the M.I.A. in-store at Sonic Boom (my home away from home) with Heff and Mark. The in-store was due to start at 7pm, but based on her show and in-studio at KEXP I was fairly certain this was not going to happen on time. Checked in at 6pm to scope out the situation (or the sich, as we like to call it). No one in the store save a couple shoppers. Headed over to The People’s Pub for some drinks and happy hour food (Yum! Say it with me ‘deep fried pickles’). At 6:45pm we walked back to the store and voila! a line of people waiting outside. It was the who’s who in hipster Seattle (I think all of Capital Hill must have emptied for this show). We waited patiently listening to conversations on the Moped Army (of which the Seattle branch is apparently called The Mosquitoes) and watched three kids attempt to rap. I said attempt. A note to all you would-be white kid rappers out there, a slightly cocked baseball hat does not a rapper make.

At about 7:00pm they let about 20 more people in. The store was HOT as in steamy and suffocating. There was still a sizable crowd peering in from outside. M.I.A. came out around 7:30-ish and launched right into their set. It was difficult to see and after the first song Maya climbed up on to the counter. Her music really reminds me of late 80s - early 90s girl rap which is why I think it appeals to me. Well, that and you can’t help but dance to it. Since she has just one record, you can imagine what she played (10 Dollar, Galang, Fire Fire, Pull Up The People, Bucky Done Gun). It was quite a long set for an in-store I thought.

Post show, we hightailed it out of there to fresh air while loads of people waited for posters and CD signings. Since I didn’t hit the sold out show earlier in the week I’m glad I went.

p.s. Oh and I wasn’t using my civil rights anyway. It’s almost surreal.

p.p.s. I totally missed Chuck’s visit to Seattle to screen Blogumentary. Damn. I hope you went.