People Under The Stairs hail from LA and are purveyors of soulful, rhapsodic hip hop, pulling in their sources from across the musical vista. Their latest album, Stepfather, is affirming and intelligent and carries on where their previous album, OST, left off. Without having firmly entered the public consciousness they have won a firm base of devoted fans and have collected plaudits and name drops from their contemporaries. And now, having toured the whole of the US and the rest of Australia, Thes One and Double K made it to Sydney with Spit Syndicate, The Optimen and D:Verse supporting.

The Aussie hip hop kicking things off was at it’s normal tenor, but things warmed up with the arrival of D:Verse who took to the stage with aplomb, DJ Murda1 backing him up on the wheels of steel. He bought the patrons down from the balconies and on to the dance floor where they mingled and jostled with some fella off Big Brother. Meanwhile P.U.T.S themselves were meeting, greeting and signing at the merchandise stand, friendly and smiling, showing a lack of conceit that was encouraging.

When they did get on the stage the room lit up. Thes One jumped on to the speakers, bouncing up and down across the stage like an excited kid, rinsing out the tunes. Double K, less active, took care of the decks and let his gravely voice do the hard work. The sound set up was excellent, the music superb, the crowd geed up and the set compelling, a mixture of their new tunes such as Pass The 40 and their classics like Acid Raindrops (all of which are recorded in Double K’s house).

If you’ve never heard People Under the Stairs now is still a good time to jump on the bandwagon with Stepfather in shops now with a bonus DVD that will give you an insight on where they’re coming from. Down to earth and technically tight, this was a great gig and a great night at The Forum.