Prefuse 73 at the Middle East
This past Friday night I was able to check out [Prefuse 73](http://www.prefuse73.com/) at the Middle East in Cambridge.
Apparently Scott and co. were running into some technical difficulties. They announced that something was broken, and so they had to change their set a bit. While I couldn’t see exactly what was the matter, it appeared that the MPC was malfunctioning.
The last time I saw Prefuse, at the Paradise Rock Club a few years ago, I recall there being lots of people on stage. Live drums, Scott on MPC 2000, a live synth, laptops, and a dj (I think). This time, there was only Scott on laptop and a live drummer.
As a result, the set list they ended up playing drew heavily from [One Word Extinguisher](http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/p/prefuse-73/one-word-extinguisher.shtml), inarguably (yes, *inarguably*) the best Prefuse album to date.
So while the “performance” aspect of the show was lacking (I prefer to see Scott bang at the MPC 2000 instead of hovering over a laptop), the song selection was an unexpected surprise.
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I was at the show. That WAS NOT Prefuse/Scott Herren up there, it was DJ Nobody. In fact, unless he was the dude on drums (which I doubt) Prefuse wasn’t there at all. Sure, they “played” all prefuse tracks, and by that I mean pressed “play” on the laptop and banged along on MPC & drums. I could do that a home for a lot less than $15. Those f’ers working the middle east even had the balls to say that was both of them (prefuse/nobody) up there.
It really pisses me off to think that an artist I respect (respected?) completely blew off this show. It might have been ok if Nobody stepped up to the mic and explained the situation (if there was one) & why Prefuse wasn’t there, but to play it off the way they did is an f’ing joke.
If anyone else who was at the show can provide some more insight I’d appreciate it.
I was in the back, and couldn’t get a close enough view of the individuals, so you may very well be right. Ugh…
I had a good view from the “balcony” left side of the stage, & I’m 100% sure that was DJ Nobody on the MPC/laptop, dude has a tattoo that covers the whole back of his hand.
I also saw prefuse the last time he came through (at the Paradise w/ Beans & Dabrye), his real live show is awesome. This was just sad. Worst of all is that most people probably left the place thinking they just saw a prefuse show.
Well, i was at the show, and after reading your comments I went back and checked out some pictures of scott. If your comments are meant to mean that it wasn’t scott in the sense of “he was not up to his normal self” then i wouldn’t know because I have never seen hhim live before. However given the description of shows from others who have, and watching what he was actually doing on the MPC (basically drum hits and fill-ins) I am inclined to agree with you. But if you are saying that the actual person who was up on stage on the MPC was not Scott, i think that you are wrong. Check out these pictures.
The guy in the pictures is either the guy who was up on stage or someone who looks ALOT like him.
Scott Herren & Nobody actually do look a lot alike: Link
That’s Nobody on the left, Scott on the right. The main difference is that scott is a skinny m/fer, Nobody isn’t.
Nobody’s also got a huge tattoo on his hand, check his page: Link
Arg. I wish I saw that. I think.
Does anyone have any photos from the show? I met him at the Prefuse / Tortoise show right before “Vocal Studies…” came out. I’ve never met Nobody, but it would appear that he has a much larger beard.
I didn’t notice the tattoo on the hand, but they do look alot alike. Crap. If that is Nobody on the left then I think “Pissed Off” might be right. That is some cold shit. But then again, I guess that if i got on stage I would proabbly assume that people knew who i was, and would not think that i am some other guy. Meaning i am not sure that they set out to impersonate Scott, but it might have come off that way. Mabey? Although they did play Prefuse tracks so that theory is probably out the window. Did you see the tattoo on the hand “Pissed Off”?
yeah, that’s nobody on the left, if you are referring to the diptych on the website…
Hey dudes. Nobody was the dude banging on the MPC. Guillermo Scott Herren was on the drums. Missed our flight, Scott bought new ones out of his own pocket, we sat on the ground for 3 hours and watched the gig slip away. What would you do? 7 hours and 6 whiskeys later we are there, the two dudes who kinda don’t look alike tired as hell ready to rock it. Sorry we didn’t change the world that night, but we had a good time and some cats in the front got me blazed. Also, it is not a tatoo, it is henna, the same material used to draw the cover of my album And Everything Else. Peace, thanks for listening and wondering.