Lollapalooza 2008 Day 2: Jamie Lidell

See more photos of Jamie Lidell in our Lollapalooza Day 2 Flickr photo stream.

There are some things British techno wizard-cum-soul man Jamie Lidell does not do well. Namely, falsetto. Maybe he likes the way his voice sounds when it’s breaking in the higher registers or what-have-you. So it says something that even with that major flaw, I’ll be damned if there wasn’t a more virtuosic performer on Day 2.

Lidell’s set could roughly be divided into two parallel acts. In one, he plays frontman behind a slightly ironic Stax soul band (keys, guitar/bass, sax/electric flute, drums). I say ironic not because the musicians were wanting in skillz, but because of their outfits (white and red jumpsuits, white robe with flip-flops and Asian trianglulated hat…) For this part of the set, Lidell channels Otis Redding and Stevie, even if all he’s doing is approximating their greatness. Tracks like “When I Come Back Around” or “A Little Bit More” carry a silly, kinetic momentum. Lidell mans the vocoder and “jams” with his robed sax player for surely the most surreal image of Day 2. Lidell’s skinny bod and outfit—blazer with no t-shirt, tight black pants (cute tush, Jamie!)—thick, black hipster glasses—make him look like a cross between Ira Glass and David Cassidy.

The second act has Lidell working through dense samples. Of himself. Over his own beat-boxes and melismatic vocal tics, Lidell samples everything he sings into the mic and either layers it, tweaks it, or subtracts from it to create stunning, orchestral arrangements. For this, he’s parked mostly over in front of his two laptops, his MPC-like drum machine and massive mixer. Again, to his credit, despite being parked in an inaccessible part of the stage for this “act,” he knew how to set the crowd alight.

I counted myself a skeptical fan; I didn’t want to be party to another rote R&B nostalgia circus (cough, Amy Winehouse). But Lidell’s bold imagination takes soul music to vistas its founders likely never imagined. The brother has figured me out.

Photo: Seth Mooney