MIA Concert Review [Detroit 5.08.08]: Bamboo Banga

NOTE: A thousand apologies for the delay.

With a catalog of potential club bangers, one would expect an especially amped show from MIA, and the London native didn't disappoint.

Opening up with a dope tracklist including joints such as Mike's P.Y.T. and his remixes of Kanye and Shawty Lo hits, DJ Million $ Mano def. set the night off with the right vibe. Considering the crowd was at least half hipster half hip-hop heads, (with some random 12 year olds sprinkled throughout) his electro based blends were on point.


After a set lasting about an hour, MIA arrived on stage and seized control from the jump. Opening strongly with album cuts from "Bamboo Banga" to "World Town", MIA rode an early wave of energy from the crowd for the duration. Rarely did show ever stutter from track to track (Except when Detroit couldn't clap on beat. See clip.), with MIA often setting the track progression herself.

Dispensing plastic horns throughout the crowd, as well as jumping off script on various songs, MIA kept the feel of the show "live", not always a given considering the current breed of barking MC's and lip syncing divas. Not to mention, at various points throughout the night she brought innumerable masses of random people on stage to break it down. (Again, how many MC's bring anybody but their posse on stage?)

After parading through damn near every song in her catalog, MIA left the crowd chanting for an encore. Approximately 5 minutes later she arrived back on stage to deliver her biggest hit "Paper Planes" (Which most of the crowd didn't even realize she hadn't played).

VERDICT:

If you can go through your entire show without playing your biggest hit and nobody notices because your show has THAT hype? Impressive. Put simply, if MIA were actually Napoleon and her live show an unending quest for world domination (and can we REALLY prove that this isn't the case?*), we'd all be speaking French right now.**

*I mean, have YOU ever seen Napoleon and MIA in the same place, at the same time? I rest my case.

**Correlates roughly to a 9.2/10