We’ve been big fans of The Polish Ambassador for quite some time here at Wookie Post. A few of us even attended the Festival of Gnarnia this past summer, very excited to see the Ambassador invoke a late night dance party on the mountain. Unfortunately, the stage/venue he was playing on was indoors and thus had a maximum occupancy, leaving us downtrodden and in the rain. While there is much to vent about that weekend, let’s just say that we thought it was pretty lame that we had paid for a festival ticket and couldn’t see all the acts listed on the lineup, especially one of our most anticipated performers.
After the summer mishap, our love for Polish only grew, especially fueled by the download of the entire TPA discography (over 12+ hours of FREE POLISH!) for free directly off of his website thepolishambassador.com. So naturally, we were very excited when Polish released his Spring tour dates and Pittsburgh was on the list.
I started inviting every friend I could think of, doing my very best to spread the word of Poland’s Ambassador to the Universe. About a week before the show, we had assembled a pretty full crew of beat freaks to make the voyage to the Burgh. The crew began to dissipate rapidly.
DJ Keeb$, Pittsburgh Native
Some blamed “dead week”, others had sudden work obligations. My brother, who was arguably more excited than I, had just started a new job and couldn’t get off during the week to make the trip up (fortunately for him, he got to see TPA perform in Richmond a few days prior). By Wednesday morning, the day of the show, the number was down to two. It would be myself and a fellow Wookie Post Morgantown correspondent making the pilgrimage to Pittsburgh, to blast into orbit aboard Polish’s spaceship, getting down in the interstellar dance party.
We arrived early enough to see the first opener, local DJ Keeb$, warm up the crowd with some trippy, psychedelic, electronic beats. It was almost a mix of Blutech, Tipper, and Ott, only a little more uptempo. While there were only a handful of people on the dance floor at this point, my friend and I agreed that Keeb$ was definitely killing it.
Everyone here at Wookie Post encourages you to check out some of Keeb$ stuff on SoundCloud Here. We look forward to getting him down to Morgantown to play at 123 Pleasant some time this Summer. He’s playing at the Brillobox in Pittsburgh this Saturday, May 10th, with fellow Pittsburgh producers Le Moti.
The second opener, whose name I couldn’t get anywhere, wasn’t really to my liking. He was playing a lot of mash ups and it was very fast paced. The crowd seemed to be enjoying it overall though, so he did the job of getting the crowd hyped. Forsaken by his height, and having the misfortune of playing on a short table, I felt bad for the guy because he had to lean over so far to play his set.
Once both openers finished, TPA’s stuff was set up by his crew. As he came out onto the stage, the now full dance floor erupted in cheer.
Second Act, unfortunately we did not catch his name.
The Polish Ambassador, whose real name is David Sulgaski, is known for wearing his super funky yellow and blue jumpsuit, and is accompanied on stage by Liminus, the lights/visuals guy. This is different from most shows that see the lights people off in the middle of the crowd. You can definitely see the benefit of this unusual set up, as it allows the visuals to feed off the music more directly. These guys not only put on a show of great music and dynamic visuals; they have more fun on stage than any act I can recall. Polish dances just as much as the concertgoers themselves. It’s a great atmosphere to be apart of, as stage presence is a huge part of being a talented performer.
The backdrop of the stage (what the visuals are displayed on) is hand crafted and known as “the Embassy”. It was constructed by Liminus and the merch guy, Joshua. I talked to Joshua for a few minutes about it and came to find that they used many tent poles as the frame and a spandex like material stretched between the poles. It’s somewhat sunken in, almost like the shape of the background of an amphitheater, which creates a neat optical illusion when visuals of space and stars are shot on it.
Polish started off the set with what he called some “slow and sexy” beats, and built up to upbeat tunes. It was a nice mix of some of his older stuff and tracks off his newest album “Ecozoic”.While the entire album has yet to be released, TPA has been releasing one song from it every Tuesday for the past few weeks.
I especially liked when he dropped “Portal Hopping”, a song off the album “I Found Him. Now I Must Kill Him.”, as well as his remix of Lupe Fiasco’s “I Gotcha” and his “Return of the Mack” remix.
There was never a moment during which the entire crowd wasn’t getting down to the funky space beats that were being dropped. I know that I, personally, was cutting a mean rug, breaking a good sweat, and keeping the cold beers flowing.
Time flew by, and before I knew it, TPA was telling the crowd that the set was over, giving all the party people props for coming out on a Wednesday night with so much energy. He then played a few more songs to finish out the night, one of which was a new release from “Ecozoic” which he had not released yet. I wish I could remember the name of the track as Pittsburgh was the first time he played it live.
After that he said he wanted to meet some of the fans, and jumped down into the crowd for photos and chit chat. David is a wonderfully nice fellow, giving everyone their turn, thanking all who came out.
We made our way to the front, mentioned Wookie Post, and got a photo. I told him about the debacle that was Gnarnia, to which he agreed and replied: “We should’ve been on a bigger stage!” Couldn’t agree more. I could see him being an awesome late-night festival closer, bringing one last cosmic dance party to the hardcore group of people that don’t want the party to end.
Something that I’ve come to find about The Polish Ambassador’s music is that it all just makes you want to get down, to dance, to just have fun. This is something that is so very primal about music. It digs down into your soul and makes you want to boogie.
A perfect example of this comes from my older brother, the huge Polish fan mentioned earlier. He has two young children, five and three years old. He’ll let his kids listen to all the music he enjoys, and they love all of it. They don’t know any of the stigmas that some people assign to electronic music, they just know it makes them dance and have a good time. There was a video that has been lost in the smart phone nethersphere in which his daughter was dancing like crazy and looks at the camera and says “POLISH AMBASSADOR!” We’re working hard to find it.
The Polish Ambassador is definitely a great time, and we recommend everyone check him out. As mentioned earlier, all of his music is available for free on his website. He’ll be bringing the space beats to festivals across the country this Summer; Electric Forest and Wakarusa to name a few. I’m especially excited to attend the intergalactic dance party in the Forest. Better brush up on your Polish before the Summer hits.
FREE POLSIH!!
MP
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