A few things were proven by this show on Thursday night. Firstly a poorly promoted show will bring out a crowd to match, and secondly, a dope live performer will perform like there is a rammed room regardless of that fact. On his first Australian tour in seven years J-Zone through no fault of his own was confronted with an empty room, yet ripped up the stage regardless.

I arrived at Fowlers roughly forty-five minutes after doors had opened and was probably the fifth person in the venue. There were more staff than punters and at this stage I realized the absence of street promo was going to show. I’m pretty well across all hip-hop that happens in Adelaide and I had heard rumours of this tour months ago, but the first actual promotion I saw was a sticker on the urinal three weeks ago at the Nurcha wear launch. Aside from this I saw one flyer on the floor of a show and one poster in the window of B# records. The effort there was reflected in the 70 people – and I’m probably being generous there – that attended.

As DJ’s like Nevar spun early, the main room was totally empty. Those there preferred to sit and chat around the bar. The track selection was brilliant; Biggie, Nas and so on but nobody seemed to care. When it came time for the first act local emcees the Roach Scholars the audience moved into the main space. Sadly, the Scholars looked bored, and wanting for stage presence. I don’t know whether it was the lack of fans or just an off night- and the sound mix was appalling with muffled lyrics. I was thoroughly under whelmed.

I wandered out to the main bar area and noticed Delta in a cipher, this posed me to think I would have had more enjoyment listening to him freestyle. At the urging of DJ Sheep who had now taken the decks we headed back into the main arena for the arrival of J-Zone. Stepping out on stage it was an outfit only Zone could pull off- basketball shorts, knee-high NBA socks, a headband (complete with two twenty dollar bills under it) and to top it off a full length fur ‘pimp’ coat. Slamming straight into my personal favourite track Eatadiccup his energy on stage challenged those there to not enjoy his set- the energy held and the audience responded. He worked through tracks from pretty much each album, had heaps of crowd interaction on tracks like 5 star Hooptie, rapped on his knees in a tribute to Bushwick Bill and even spent a whole track bouncing a basketball, globetrotters style. There were a couple of brief interludes, *Delta*’s presence became clear as he was called up on stage where he spat a track and a freestyle showing his world-class skills, while the trick set from DJ Sheep was impressive as expected. The star of the show though was undoubtedly J-Zone. Not many emcees can finish their set with a Miami bass beat and the whole crowd, both sexes shouting down women- hilarious and the work of a true showman at play. In *Zone*’s own words “I don’t give a fuck if forty or forty thousand people came out, thank you” and we appreciated the efforts of an emcee who truly meant that statement.

Closing things out DJ Sheep slid into some gangsta hip-hop. While starting his set with DJ Assault pretty much cleared the room, Sheep didn’t seem to care sharing his vodka rider with those remaining on the floor. He slid into more traditional fare like Straight Up Menace from MC Eiht but by that stage work in the morning was demanding I head home. Sadly the promise of J-Zone hitting the decks himself was not enough to lure me to stay for the final half hour of the show. In short, this was a poorly promoted show with a stack of disappointments, but neverless J-Zone tore the stage up and made the Thursday night journey worthwhile.