We're at Club Sonar at 9 p.m. last Thursday night. The doors open to let Qbert fans into the lounge. Everybody has a pitcher of discounted beer, and they're sharing with their friends. They've set up a projector in the lounge so that the people avoiding the crowd can see Qbert's set in the main room. Most people are huddled around the bar, too afraid to dance, until a crew of breakdancers come in and take over the floor.
Two local turntablists, Cam-One & Rockwell, are the opening act, and they start off the party in the main room of the club. Cam-One is especially good at working the crowd, often ending phrases with rapid small scratches, while keeping perfectly syncopated with the back beat. The two perfectly cover each other's mistakes; a couple of times, Rockwell loses the rhthym, but Cam-One was always there to save him. The pair's only real audible fault is that they go too heavy on the in-between time of plain record-playing and don't do enough scratching. After a while, emcees Armanni and Sharpness from Philadelphia come on the stage to liven up the crowd. The crowd is hyped for a while, but eventually the energy dies down when the emcees' hold their mics too close to their mouths and become annoying.
Qbert is renowned for his legendary performances that made him champion of the 1992-93 USA and 1993-94 World DMC championships. These competitions, organized by turntable production company DMC, are generally considered the world championships of spinning. After the second year of Qbert cleaning up, they asked him to judge the World Battle in 1995 instead of competing.
After his "retirement" from competition, he received the 1998 DMC DJ Hall of Fame award along with famed former Beastie Boys DJ Mix Master Mike, who was touring with Qbert. This tour was named the QFO tour because Qbert would be showing off his brand new piece of turntable equipment called the QFO. But many DJs are skeptical of whether or not it is just a gimmick, with its sleek cylindrical appearance, and people have little faith in Vestax, the manufacturer of the QFO.
Regardless of the quality of equipment, the performance relies on the talent of the DJ. But the crowd is hardly concerned about what turntables were being used as they are waiting for Qbert to take over the decks and are packing into the main room of Sonar.
And then... Qbert hits the stage! Donning nerdy glasses and a mock work shirt emblazoned with the name "Fred," he warms up his hands to deliver what would turn out to be another awesome performance. He grins as the crowd goes insane. It's great to see the difference between the caliber of DJs like Cam-One and Qbert, because Qbert makes it look so easy and fun, whereas Cam-One, while an excellent DJ, still scratches in a conservative manner, always keeping tight focus on what he's doing. Qbert's face twists into wonderful facial expressions during his performance, often sticking his tongue out at the end of a phrase as if to say, "Now wasn't that nice?" It is reminiscent of BT, but instead of his body dancing to the music, he is spinning, his hands were dancing all over the turntables, driving the crowd mad. Often, his fingers move so fast you can't even see them. Throughout the show, many people nudge their friends, pointing to Qbert, saying, "Oh my God! He's unbelievable."
After a nice bit with some wonderful "80s music like "Axel F" from Beverly Hills Cop, Qbert's emcee yells, "Let's see how many ways Qbert can F*** that beat up!" When a turntablist scratches over a song, whether it's techno, rock, rap or pop he or she often uses a fader to punctuate the sounds, usually because hands can't move fast enough to slow down the record to get the same sound. The fader helps you cut the record into shorter bursts, something most deejays cannot do by hand.
"Baltimore is actually the first city that I scratched without the fader," announces Qbert to the already fanatic crowd. At this point it seems like he is using one hand to move the record steadily and another hand to start and stop it, but after awhile his hands are moving so fast again that it looks like a storm is hitting the turntable. It's amazing that anybody could make coherent sounds at that speed.
After a good hour of scratching, Qbert brings the show to a close, signing and selling records. Everyone left the show satisfied. Drunks begin arguing with coat check people and started to look for cabs. And all the local deejays in the crowd went home resolving to practice everyday so that they too could become great scratch artists.
To see what the scratch thing is all about, check out DJ Craze, the "98, '99 and '00 World DMC Champion at Sonar on Feb. 19.
