Photos by me

The highlight at Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus' concert Tuesday at Neptune Theatre was when Seattle rapper Ishmael Butler from Shabazz Palaces came out and rapped a verse. The busy snares/hi-hats/lasers were a new environment for Butler, who narrowed his voice to cut through, standing partially in the shadows, dressed like an Australian sheep farmer. It was a cool combo. Perhaps we'll hear it again when the track Shabazz Palaces, THEESatisfaction and Flying Lotus made recently in California materializes. Another musical highlight was when Lotus (Steven Ellison) played his jungle-y composition "Melt!" layered with a sped-up version of Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You." But that was just one of many in a long, live DJ mix of hits from today (TNGHT) and back in your school days (Radiohead), which outside after the show, several young people proclaimed "sick." I had to agree.