Values rock the Palace

Courtesy of Epic DeeJay Punk-Roc will be among the performers at the Family Values concert tonight at the Palace. Korn will be headlining the show.

By Adlin Rosli
Daily Arts Writer

Korn's "Family Values" tour package makes its Michigan appearance today at the Palace. With the likes of Korn, Rammstein and Ice Cube dominating the stage with dreadlocks, fire and original gangsta attitude, concert-goers are all set for a wealth of sights and sounds. Hopefully, however, all the main stage activities will not distract people from another terrific performer who will be playing between sets of these heavy hitters - DeeJay Punk-Roc.

This acclaimed Brooklyn-born D.J., who now lives in England, will hype things up before and after bands play. "I use a mike to hype out," DeeJay Punk-Roc said. "I use a little hip-hop, a little drum and bass, break beats, free style old school style, a little techno, a little bit of everything really and I mix it all up in the process. I basically want people to have a good time. I'm not trying to impress the D.J.s or nothing like that. I'm not trying to impress the people who are trying to analyze anything, its all about helping everybody have a good time," he said.

"I think I fit in very loosely actually. I provide a little contrast to the rest of the show because, musically, when I play on a set I play a bit of everything, so it fits in nicely. I'm there to fire things up for everyone. I'm the one who gets to get the crowd going, I like that."

Not since Anthrax went on tour with Public Enemy has a group with as much heavy music stature as Korn been ambitious enough to take such a diverse group of musicians out on the road as a single show. (Sorry, Lollapalooza and Warped does not count because they are not bands.)

"It's nice to see someone throwing together things like this, it makes a nice change than it just being pure rock or pure hip-hop or pure this or pure that," Punk-Roc said. "It's breaking down a lot of barriers. And I think what your going to do in the end is touch a much wider audience."

The musical diversity and cohesion according to the D.J does not just occur on stage either. As he explained, "I don't think that anyone has got that ego attitude going on here. You know, initially you expect that kind of thing to be there, but as time goes on you realize that it's not. I'm not just saying that I get along with everybody because I really do!"

While cross genre music festivals like Family Values and Lollapalooza are still a relatively new and unusual occurrence, it is a frequent thing in Europe.

"I think maybe its because Europeans travel around Europe a lot more. Where as most people in the U.S., you know most of them don't even get to go out of their state too much. They just end up staying and growing up in just their own neighborhood and unintentionally end up growing up with views and everything else that's much more narrow. While in Europe, people have easier access if they want to go out to France, to Spain, to Germany, to go to all these places. And people are doing things everywhere, different cultures, their different cultures and everything." Punk-Roc said.

He continued to say that Americans are less cultured as their European counterparts. "Where as in the US this place is so big and its harder to get around that people just tend to stay right home. I know a lot of people that never been on a plane before. I used to be the same way, that's why I can say that. I used to think they must be doing the same thing everywhere else, it's not until you get out there that you realize that people do different things everywhere else all over the world and some of it is really nice."

Aside from the terrific range of musicians playing together on this tour, Dee Jay Punk-Roc is also enjoying the partying that follows touring musicians. "It's nice you know, everyone gets to get together, it gets all the bands together and you get to say something other than just 'hello.' It's just a blast for all. I enjoy being here and everyone has been really nice to me. I went and partied with the boys in Rammstein the other night. Those guys are just party animals. I'm also sharing a bus with Orgy, so I get to hang out with those guys a lot as well. We get along fine, no problems there at all, " Punk-Roc said.

With the diverse bands on the roster fans of each style will have treat for themselves at the show. Concert-goers also look set to have a terrific time hanging out with music fans of other genres. As Dee Jay Punk-Roc describes the response of the concert-goers to his set and all the other groups playing, "The crowd has been really good. The response gets stronger and stronger each night!"

09-30-98