Review: DJ Shadow at Freo.Social

DJ Shadow at Freo.Social
w/ Diger Rokwell
Wednesday, February 19, 2025

DJ Shadow has been coming to Australia, and Perth, for 30 years. The humble legend has been here 12 times, he reckons, and never takes it for granted. He never thought his eclectic, basement record wizardry would see him leave the US, let alone travel the world for 30 years. But he has built a dedicated following with his original artistry, uncompromising vision, and restless experimentation.

The trip hop godfather, vinyl aficionado, pioneering sampler, producer, and turntablist (real name Josh Davis) loves Australia, and on a sold-out Wednesday night at Freo.Social, it was clear WA still has a lot of love for the Californian too. Thanks to discerning promoters of quality music, Dancing in Space, he made the trip west once again, bringing his Action Adventure tour in support of his 2023 album of the same name. And we certainly got a bit of both on the night!

He recalled the great times he had on his first visit for the legendary Summersault Festival (“What a line-up!”), which took place across the road at Fremantle Oval on the first Sunday of 1996 and featured one of the greatest line-ups Perth’s ever seen—including Beck, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Pavement, Rancid, Bikini Kill, The Amps, the recently formed Foo Fighters, and DJ Shadow (not to mention a new, young local band called Jebediah).

While he had an underground following, particularly in the UK where he spent a lot of time, it was only later that same year that Shadow would release his seminal, entirely sample-based debut album Endtroducing….. that was painstakingly pieced together, the old school way with an Akai MPC60 sampler and a wild array of dusty old obscure records from Davis’ massive collection. Fusing instrumental sampling and loops with elite cutting and scratching skills, random vocal snippets, and downtempo vibes, it was a groundbreaking work in the burgeoning trip-hop genre coming out of the UK, following on from the likes of Massive Attack, Portishead and DJ Krush. Released through James Lavelle’s legendary Mo’ Wax label, whom Davis would work with a couple of years later, producing UNKLE’s iconic, star-studded debut album Psyence Fiction.

Since then, DJ Shadow has continued to blaze his own path. His live sets are the stuff of legend. At his peak of popularity, Shadow pulled huge crowds, played festivals, and filled Metros City with his mind-blowing audiovisual spectaculars, like the legendary Shadowsphere (look it up—it’s up there with Daft Punk’s pyramid and Amon Tobin’s ISAM as the greatest live AV show ever). These days he’s doing more intimate venues, with a more stripped-back live show, still with a strong visual element.

He was last in town in 2019 in support of his epic double album Our Pathetic Age (one album was all instrumentals and the second was all rap collabs). His latest album, Action Adventure, sees him once again trying something different, with its retro, nostalgia-infused, 80s synth sounds and no features at all. And while he played tracks off the album, his set was an epic retrospective, taking us on a voyage through his entire catalogue of work, mixing his way through around 40 tracks, broken up into a few sections, complemented by custom visuals for each track. It was a tour de force from one of the great pioneers.

Local legend Diger Rokwell was an apt choice of support, as a fine purveyor of electronic, instrumental productions and downtempo beats. The solo project of Ash Hosken, an experienced and accomplished multidisciplinary artist, a Diger live show is always worth catching.

As a talented producer and multi-instrumentalist, over the last 15 odd years he has produced a diverse array of music, spanning a range of styles—including his latest project as Ash Digs, featuring more song-based psychedelic indietronica featuring his own laid-back vocals.

But tonight, being a DJ Shadow concert, old school Diger Rokwell was out, playing his more trip-hop-flavoured material with his live setup. It was a great set that really built the vibe in the room, and the crowd responded well. Taking in jazzy drum ‘n’ bass, lo-fi beats, loops, and grooves. He even pulled out a guitar, gently conjuring some eastern sounds from it, layering the melody, playing left-handed on an upside-down Strat, just like Hendrix. There was warm applause from the crowd as he bid us goodnight.

After a short break, around 10pm, it was time for the main event, and DJ Shadow emerged, taking his position behind the decks. He got on the mic to thank the crowd for coming down and introduced the show, telling everyone to get comfortable, “You can listen to the music or just enjoy the visuals… Tonight I’m gonna play some old songs, new songs, songs everyone will know, and one or two songs that only…. that guy right there is gonna know!” he joked, pointing to a random guy in the crowd.

Launching into his set without further ado, he started this off slow with the atmospheric sounds of Nature Always Wins, the opening track of Our Pathetic Age. Following that was the heavy, broken beats of Slingblade, which was also the second track on the album.

The moody trap vibes of Small Colleges (Stay With Me) featured the contrasting styles of MC Wiki and Paul Banks from Interpol, before more rising sounds from 2016’s The Mountain Will Fall, the first track from the album of the same name. The classic sounds of Building Steam With a Grain of Salt—the opening track from Endtroducing—with its melancholic piano loop, was greeted with cheers.

It became apparent he was just touching on some tracks, mashing up his own tracks into a nonstop megamix, while showcasing his impressive scratching skills and incorporating some live drumming at times. The big screen behind him displayed the video clips for each song and really added to the show. They were also a very handy reference, as the title was displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Dropping the first banger for the night, he pulled out Kings & Queens from Our Pathetic Age. featuring the unmistakable sounds of Run The Jewels—and it wouldn’t be the last time we heard them tonight. Then dropped into the heavy bass vibes of Rosie, continuing the upbeat sound.

The killer 2017 track he did with Nas for the Silicon Valley soundtrack, Systematic, went down a treat and kept the vibe flowing and the crowd dancing. Continuing the rap features, he dropped Been Use Ta featuring the smooth verses of Pusha T and C.O.N.F.O.R.M., which uses the same backing track, but this time featuring the late, great Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, alongside Lateef The Truthspeaker and Infamous Tez.

He took it way back to UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction with the awesome Lonely Soul featuring Richard Ashcroft’s unmistakable soulful voice, before dropping the opening track of the same album Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Pt.1), which also features Lateef, along with Lyrics Born and Kool G Rap. The old tracks always got a big reaction.

He introduced Urgent, Important, Please Read as his favourite track off Our Pathetic Age—a rolling beat with some A1 rapping from Rockwell Knuckles, Tef Poe and Daemon. Blood on the Motorway was welcomed as the first track played from his superb sophomore album, 2002’s The Private Press, an epic tune that he used as a backdrop for some of his finest scratching in his distinct style. That ended that section, as Davis took a breather. It had already been somewhat of a journey, but he had plenty more in store.

There were some more awesome visuals of robots and robot dogs, which led into a track off his latest album, You Played Me, an 80s-style synth-funk jam, featuring a smooth vocal sample. It’s fresh and different, yet somehow classic Shadow, and you could imagine it soundtracking a bad 80s film scene where some betrayed lover with big hair and a cigarette is driving a convertible at night.

The whirlwind mashup continued with a nice segue into Enuff featuring the one and only Q-Tip. The Sideshow featuring Ernie Fresh led nicely into the bombastic March of Death with the unmistakable voice and energy of Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha.

This section came home strong with a final sequence featuring more 80s synth vibes on A Narrow Escape, the banging Peshay drum ‘n’ bass mix of What Does Your Soul Look Like?, and new album track opener Ozone Scraper, which he used as another backing track to showcase his amazing scratching—the dying skill of real turntablism.

He gave shout-outs to the promoter for bringing him “Sometimes it takes not just an artist willing, but a promoter willing to take the risk to bring you.” There was a great vibe in the room, and Shadow was feeling it. He acknowledged the crowd, “Thanks for coming and supporting me for 30 years. This is my final show of an epic tour!” and the venue, giving shouts out to Louie on sound. “It’s a great-sounding room. I like it!” (Hard to believe such a superb, world-class, long-standing venue has recently been in the news due to being under threat from a nearby new hotel citing potential noise restrictions. Outrageous).

Davis seemed to be enjoying himself, as he came into the final part of the show late on this Wednesday night, asking the crowd a seemingly rhetorical question, “Would you like the short version of the show or the long version?” The long version was the clear, loud winner.

He fired up his music machine for the final onslaught, with deep rumbling sounds and mechanical noises, accompanied by machinery visuals, that conjured up a real Amon Tobin vibe. He then launched into a heavy hip hop collab section, with Seein’ Thangs featuring a great rap from David Banner, from 2006’s The Outsider LP, and a couple of classics with Walkie Talkie and the remix of Six Days featuring Mos Def. He then finished on a big note with Horror Show featuring Danny Brown, and probably his biggest single to date, the stomping Nobody Speak featuring Run The Jewels.

Walking off stage to huge applause, it wasn’t long before he was back for a short encore for the adoring crowd, featuring Drone Warfare featuring Nas and Pharoahe Monch and Rocket Fuel (his dream collab with his heroes De La Soul), before finishing on the one track everyone was waiting for, his signature tune, Organ Donor.

A massive career retrospective and a real journey of a set that was expertly curated, intricately assembled, and performed with panache. DJ Shadow returned to re-endtroduce himself and remind us why he’s considered such a legend and is still at the top of his game.

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Adrian Thomson