I remember seeing something about this show last week, but for some reason it just didn't register. I think perhaps I thought it was sold out, as her LA show was. It wasn't until 8 that I got a call from my friend Bri saying that she would have a ticket for me if I showed up. It took me all of five minutes to be on the freeway headed towards Pomona.

Once I had arrived, I immediately met up with everybody and went in. There was no line, and there were still tickets at the door. We got in and shortly after nine the first act took the stage. I'm not sure what they were called, but there were three guys, and they had two or three tuntables, a CDJ player and a laptop. Their set consisted of breaks, hard electronic beats, and oldies (like the Archies et al.). It worked surprisingly well I must say, although people were starting to file in and nobody dances to turntablism, the crowd's response indicated that they were enjoying it. After about 20 minutes, they announced Spankrock, who was to MC while they did their thing. Although I might of heard of the guy maybe once, for a relative unknown, Spankrock was up to the task of warming up the crowd for M.I.A. By the end of the performance, there were girls from the audience all over the stage dancing with him.

By this time the place was full and we were ready for M.I.A., whose dj (think his name was Contra) had gotten started first, playing some hits to keep the audience satiated while Maya got ready to make her entrance. Once she set foot on stage, everybody went nuts. In fact, we were nuts for the duration of her set. She played nearly everything from Arular, minus the skits and "Hombre", instead opting for URAQT (which my copy doesn't have). While at the beginning she stuck to album versions of her songs, later in the set the dj mixed in songs that were on the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix like "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", "Push It" and Dead Prez' "Hip Hop". M.I.A. didn't even seem to notice as she kept going perfectly, even as the beat under her kept changing.

For an artist surrounded by controversy, like MTV not playing her video due to certain political lyrics and imagery, she wasn't there to preach anything. In fact, between songs she succinctly stated her role in the whole affair (and forgive me for paraphrasing): "It's too much, it can be confusing at times. I'm just an agitator. I don't want to tell people what to think, I just want them to start asking questions." Freedom fighter, terrorist sympathizer, or whatever you want to call her, she'll just as soon deny it. And while I've heard the whole "Just trying to raise awareness" line before, in her case I believe it.

The whole night sounded great as well. For some reason the Glass House is a great place for electronic music, despite the fact that they mainly book rock bands. The bass was incredible, so deep yet so clear. I swear it loosened some congestion I didn't even know I had. (It might have had some other effects as well.) All I do know is that I felt much better at the end of the night than I did earlier, which is ultimately the mark of a good show.

P.S. Thank you M.I.A. for giving such short notice for the show and giving me a chance to see you, and thanks Breezy for inviting me.