This past Friday night marked the return of RJD2 to the Detroit area in what I think marked his first appearance since his DJ set at last Spring’s Movement Festival. And I think it’s because of that DJ set that I was so pleasantly surprised at his full live show.

We arrived to the sold out show just as the second opening act Break Science was finishing up. It was definitely a cool and unique DJ act, mainly because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a DJ spinning only accompanied by a live drummer exaggerating all the beats. I, as well as the rest of the crowd, was a big fan.

Then it was time for the main event. Even when he was just setting up, as the crowd cheered uncontrollably and he got a huge grin on his face, it was clear that RJ Krohn was genuinly appreciative of the support of his fans and was humble as heck. Pretty refreshing if you ask me.

The show began with RJD2 coming on stage in a sort of robot costume as Commissioner Crotchbuttons. His getup included a welding mask and a beat pad (is that what theyre called?) over his nether regions (hence, crotchbuttons) and teased the crowd a little with his robot voice before dropping into perhaps his most famous work, A Beautiful Mine, which most know as the Mad Men theme song.

Then the costume came off and it was full speed ahead. What was most surprising for me, since I had only seen him perform a DJ set in the past, was that he actually performed with a full band, with guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. I definitely wasn’t expecting that at all but it really added a lot of energy to the show, and it was a nice change up going from full band to just him on stage doing what he does behind the turntables.

While the whole show was pretty high energy, but I was a little concerned that the floor was going to fall through when he really kicked it up a notch for the last few songs with some older tunes that the crowd went nuts for. The crowd was a pretty interesting mix of people which as usual become more tolerable the farther back you moved. We started out right up front, and I had a revelation. I do feel like I’m becoming that crotchety old man cursing those darned kids all the time, but I now know the reason why. Besides there usually being at least 5 girls under age 18 who can barely even stand up, I realized that the kids always show up to these shows in packs of 30, and they spend the entire show pushing everyone around so that they can get all 30 people into a 1×1 foot area. I feel like we didn’t used to do that. But I digress.

After a nice encore that calmed things down a bit, I was waiting out back for my other friends, but Diana came running over telling me that she just met RJ and he was talking to all the fans. This was maybe the best part of the night for me, because it’s oh so rare that a musical act with a sold out show will spend a half hour signing autographs and taking pictures and talking to every single fan that wanted to. It’s nice to see musicians who are so successful but are still completely down to earth and normal people who truly appreciate the fans and take the time to show it. And I think what I like best about his music is how he manages to combine so many different styles into one. It just makes for a more interesting sound that appeals to so many different types of people. Good work, RJ, good work.

This wasn’t my best photographic performance ever, but as always hit up the dailybeats Flickr page to see a few more pics. I promise I’ll do better next time.

Hey look, it’s my friend Diana with RJD2, making her second appearance on the site

Hey look, it’s me and RJD2

And a little of the character of the Majestic complex in Detroit, full of bars, restaurants, music venues, and of course Garden Bowl.

I think this song is a pretty fantastic example of what I was talking about, the combination of different styles of music into one. “Ghostwriter” is from his 2002 album “Deadringer”. Just a hot track.

RJD2 – Ghostwriter

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