For those of you who have never seen M.I.A. in concert, make sure that you don't do so at Studio B in Brooklyn. What may have been the loudest hot place I've ever been (or the hottest loud place...I'm still not sure which was worse) was the venue for a set last night by everyone's favorite Anglo-Dravidian. The atmosphere in the place was electric; unfortunately, the bad outweighed the good for me.

I should have known something was up when M.I.A.'s visa problems prevented Studio B from being able to confirm the show until last week. Consequently, no opening acts were booked, and tickets didn't go on sale until last Thursday (they sold out within a couple of days). This wouldn't have been a problem, had the club made it clear on their website that there would be no openers. It made the 9pm door time listed on the site seem rather silly when the night's only act didn't take the stage until after 12:30am. However, two extended sets from Studio B's very talented in-house DJs held the crowd over until time for M.I.A. to go on. In fact, after seeing M.I.A. perform, I'd say that the DJs were really the revelation of the night.

In spite of the incredibly high energy levels pulsing through the crowd, Ms. Arulpragasam, accompanied by her own DJ and backup singer/dancer, played only for about 40 minutes before announcing her "last" song--also the first single off her latest record, Kala--"Bird Flu." Returning for a 15-minute encore, during which her mic cut out TWICE, M.I.A. sang her hits "Galang" and "Boyz" before once again exiting the stage, this time for good.

In sum: the build-up was too long, and the concert too short; the venue too crowded, hot, and loud; and worst of all--the pictures too blurry!

Photo from M.I.A.'s Siren festival appearance by heartonastick via Flick