I have always thought that Adam Freeland was a rockstar trapped in the body of a truly excellent breaks DJ. Seeing his band Freeland on this occasion however, it became clear that he is both, and he devotes the same boundless energy to each type of performance.

Arriving a little later than anticipated to the hallowed Prince Band room, I only managed to catch about an hour of local breaks legend Phil K. I enjoyed listening to some darker tunes, as did the rest of the medium sized crowd. A little later on, Phil changed the tempo of the tunes, playing some tunes that were almost swing style breaks. This even prompted one or too bodies to the empty dance floor.

Freeland (the group) assumed their on stage positions at about 11:20, and remained there for about an hour. The band consisted of two vocalists, bass, guitar, drums and Adam Freeland on everything else (including George Bush rubber mask during “We Want Your Soul”).
One of the reasons why Adam Freeland is a favorite of mine is due to the way he fuses styles and sounds. This means that a greater audience can appreciate his music. This has been demonstrated by the success of the group’s single “We Want Your Soul.” This is a huge tune not only on the breaks scene, but the Ed Rush and Optical remix is popular in the drum and bass circuits and the single has enjoyed a slab of airtime on commercial radio.

The live set consisted of a majority of tunes from Freeland’s debut album ‘Now and Them’ and some highlights included ‘Burn the Clock,’ “We Want Your Soul’, ‘Mind Killer’ as well as some more of the garage sounds from the album. There was also a ‘live’ version of that Nirvana bootleg, with a hint of Billy Jean synth sounds from Mr Freeland’s keyboard. Probably the best tune was “Supernatural Thing” with incredible wailing vocals.

After finishing the band thing, Freeland disappeared, and Adam Freeland came out in “DJ mode.” Starting off with an unknown remix of Unkle’s ‘R.E.I.G.N,’ Adam Freeland continued to show his fusing of styles. Included in the set was the Beastie Boys classic ”(You Gotta)Fight for your Right(to Party)” and his own remix of the White Stripes “Seven-Nation Army”. At this point things seemed to have stepped up and more bodies appeared to be on the dance floor appreciating the tunes.

Special mention to the visuals on the night. During Freeland’s performance the visuals were tied in with the songs but later during the solo set the visuals were quite arresting. On some occasions the images were reminiscent of a U2 ZOO TV performance, flashing phrases and so on. At a later stage however, there was a curious animation in which the character’s heads swapped places with their genitals.I even caught Adam having a squiz!

Later during the mix set, which went for about an hour, both vocalist came back on stage to sing (not MC) over a couple of the closing tracks. In true rock n roll style Adam Freeland executed an encore. The small but incredibly appreciative crowd bayed for more, Adam protested that he wasn’t allowed to play any longer the houselights came on, and that was it.

This intimate performace was incredibly strong and executed with true talent and skill. The diversity in sounds and the ability of these artists to “cross-over” gives great promise of things to come.