Deltron 3030 at First Avenue, Minneapolis (10/20/13)

Setlist

Tour Dates

Deltron 3030, the supergroup of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala, is currently on tour from the year 3030, stopping by Minneapolis to their sold-out show at First Avenue last night.

What Kid Koala does live on stage is simply amazing: “No laptops, no tricks, just good old fashion vinyls”. Each record were personally marked at where to drop the needle, and some were personally bent and warped on purpose to create effects. Timing is everything and if you don’t have the dexterity, you’ll mess up – and that’s what happened to Kid Koala near the start of “Skanky Panky.” Instead of continuing the spin, Kid Koala stopped all the records and went to the mic to tell us this story about how he used to play classical piano. During a recital, his teacher told him to stop and take a bow if he messed up. So that’s what Kid Koala did, took a bow and then proceeded to restart “Skanky Panky”.

After the introduction song, “State of the Nation”, Deltron, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala, came on stage to launch into a solid three-singalong set of “3030”, “Things You Can Do” and “Positive Contact”. Everybody in the audience was singing along, it’s been a long time for fans to memorize the Del lyrical masterpieces.

The band then had a long set of new songs, from Event II, which was just recently released, so fans had not had the time to fully enjoy it. But you know they would love it if they had some time to digest these new songs. After all, the same themes on the original album are apparent on the latest songs: the environment, the evil corporations, spaceships, and, our hero, Deltron Zero.

If you missed their Letterman appearance last week, the band had a full orchestra (dubbed the 3030 Orchestra) with Dan acting as musical conductor. He serves the same purpose at the Deltron show, directing his live band (guitarist, bassist, and drummer) or helping add effects with Kid Koala’s scratching. He’ll also grab the mic to sing backups.

After the Kid Koala breakdown, Dan the Automator came on stage to show off these personalized First Avenue donuts for the band. Then the band continued playing new songs, but occasional throwing in old favorites like “Virus” and “Memory Loss”, which ended their set with a strong note.

The encore was unbelievable, after “Do You Remember”, the band kicked into a song that Dan said, “you all know this one“, as they launched into “Clint Eastwood”. That song made Gorillaz famous, but we all knew this was made by the same people in Deltron, but minus Damon Albarn. That’s okay, the part of Albarn were loudly sung by the audience to a roaring, satisfying finish.

I was walking to my car until I saw a group of people outside the First Avenue garage. Apparently, right after the show, Del and Kid Koala were skateboarding in the garage! A few of us handed them our 12″ and they signed the record for us. Unfortunately, Dan didn’t skate so he wasn’t there to sign my album. Dan is pretty active in the music scene, so I’ll catch him at another time (I’ll bring the record to have him finish the holy trinity of signatures).

Del, the Automator, and Kid Koala, are currently bringing the year 3030 to you soon. Check them out today, because, who knows when all three will get back together?