Desdamona with Carnage and The New Congress at Mill City Museum on 8/17/06

By: David Rachac

Desdamona with The New Congress - Photo by David Rachac

After being blown away by Desdamona at the MPR-sponsored Concert of Many Womenshow at the Fitzgerald in May, I was pleased to have the opportunity to see her perform a longer set in the courtyard of the Mill City Museum.  For this performance Desdamona was backed by her musical partner Carnage [the duo is also known as Ill Chemistry], as well as the funk-rock band The New Congress, with whom she frequently collaborates.

Desdamona started the evening off with “Too Big for My Skin,” a spoken-word piece which was an effective way of drawing in people from the crowd who may have had little exposure to hip-hop. Once she captured the crowd’s attention with her positive message, she introduced beat-box vocalist Carnage, and the two of them took off down a beat-heavy road that sometimes shook the walls of the courtyard.

Seemingly without any effort, she mixed soulful singing and staccato rapping while weaving around Carnage’s varied beats and harmonics. Songs like “Whatcha Got?” and “I Don’t Stop” had an exuberant bounce to them, highlighted by Carnage’s impressive vocalizations, and got people into the groove – including several little kids around me throwing down some serious martial arts and Russian folk dancing moves.

After the intermission, Desdamona returned backed by The New Congress, and her energy really kicked into another gear. Working in front of a live band seemed to give her singing voice and her story-telling talents an additional push, allowing her to move forward to spit out vocal lines and then step back to sing the choruses. She performed three songs, including a rewrite of the Roots’ “You Got Me” (retitled “Love At First Write”), before giving the stage to The New Congress for a couple of their originals.

The New Congress’ three-song mini-set was an unexpected treat.  From the pure silk of “Ain’t About You” to the social commentary of “Eyes Of The Yellow Sun,” they played a cool mixture of R&B and jazzy pop, and were very accessible to a wide range of musical tastes. Singer/guitarist Aaron Cosgrove and bassist Justin Blair have a definite vocal chemistry, and the whole band sounded seamless. No wonder they are attracting so much attention, both locally and nationally – this is the sound of cash registers ringing.

When Desdamona came back to the stage, she did another spoken-word piece dedicated to the hip-hop fans in the crowd in which she name-dropped rappers into a never-ending play on words:

They told me I was Too Short and too Vanilla Ice
They said I shouldn’t rock the mic because I wasn’t too hype
They called me MC Lyte and it wasn’t because I was skinny
See, I thought PE stood for physical education
Then I called in a request and they said I had the wrong station

Desdamona invited Carnage back onstage with The New Congress for the final two songs, during which Carnage had one-on-one battles with each of the musicians and challenged them to outdo his vocalizations, getting a good laugh out of the crowd. She finished with a new song called “The Source,” another addition to the positive vibe of the evening that featured the chorus, “Love is the source/love is the light.”

Set List:
Too Big For My Skin (Spoken word)
Rhyme Tissue
Whatcha Got?
I Don't Stop
Can't Be Me
Refracted Light
Infinity Infinite-I

With The New Congress:
Planetarium
Faulty Fuses
Love at First Write (Roots)
Ain't About You  (New Congress only)
Eyes of the Yellow Sun  (New Congress only)
Wonder Why  (New Congress only)
Wanted 2 Be An MC (Spoken word)
Winter
The Source

Location Info: Mill City Museum
Artist Info: Carnage, Desdamona, The New Congress

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