Who: Isotope 217, DJ CX. Where: Sapphire Supper Club - Orlando, FL. When: Thursday October 7, 1999. What I Wore: Plain white t-shirt, dress slacks and floppy clown shoes that stretch out 35 inches. You may have seen me fall down the stairs, breaking my nose.

Photography and Story by Jeffrey Howard.

This was a very bizarre show.

Isotope 217 are from Chicago, IL and have a couple of records on Thrill Jockey. I have the first one (The Unstable Molecule) and I like it. The band has three guys from Tortoise in it but this project has a bit more funk to it. They did a Miles Davis cover even.

Weird things began to happen when a drunk DJ CX, who had overspent his DJ time by about two hours, would jump onstage grabbing a microphone and saying some stupid line like "bring it up" over and over. It was horrible. He had no rhymes or anything. Given this cue this biker dude would also hop on the stage and do the same thing. It was annoying and I couldn't tell if the band was into it or putting up with it.

The band would leave the stage. This DJ would not. He picked up drum sticks and sloppily played the drumkit. Then audience members got microphones and rapped. Now this guy had some decent rhymes and vocal effects but what the heck was going on? We left. We knew it was over later because we saw the DJ at the door.

As we were standing outside I see my sister, whom I had not seen since last February, stumbling down Orange Avenue all up in the street in front of cars drunk as a skink. "I just had half a margarita...." she says.

Related Links:
Tortoise Live Picture Page by Jeffrey Howard

Kick Bright | Shows

Writing and Photographs © 1999 by Jeffrey Howard.
Please don't display them elsewhere.