Three Strikes Tour feat. Urthboy, Hermitude & The Tongue @ The Gaelic Club, Sydney (12/10/07)
In the scheme of things I haven’t been into hip hop all that long. But I have been around long enough to remember seeing Urthboy and Ozi Batla performing with Bass Elefant to a crowd of twenty or so, most of whom were obviously friends of the performer’s. Hermitude, who played to even less, followed them. Those days are long gone though, and I arrived at the Gaelic Club (for what was essentially a showcase of some of the finest acts off the mighty Elefant Tracks label) to find Prince V playing to a venue already more than half full. I was surprised at how young the audience were, no doubt due to the copious airplay given to Oz hip hop on Triple J these days.
Hermitude’s live act has come a long way since I first saw them. No longer just a pair of guys hunched over a bunch of electronics, both Elgusto and Luke Dubs have microphones, and Elgusto in particular was very adept at filling in the time while Luke played around with leads. They were here to launch their new EP Rare Sightings, and despite being allotted only 45 minutes, managed to play just about all the tracks off the EP, as well as a bunch of favourites that included Galactic Cadillac, Splendid Isolation, Gusto’s Theme and a dubbed out Can’t Stop. The fresh Sunsetter is a tasty reggae-type number taken from the new EP that will no doubt get plenty of airtime this summer, while Alter Ego is “one for the junglists”. Having picked up Rare Sightings after the gig, I can highly recommend it.
Urthboy was up next, joined on stage by Elgusto and Ozi Batla. These two MC’s have been rapping together in various projects for long enough now that they work together impeccably. Luke Dubs came back up on stage for a performance of the Hermitude’s Fallen Giants – an absolute highlight of the night. The majority of the set was made up of tracks from Urthboy’s new album The Signal, including the album’s title track and We Get Around. The set was closed out with the phenomenal No Rider from the Distant Sense of Random Menace album. I was a little disappointed that The Tongue didn’t get up for a version of The Wrong One, but the set was, as we’ve come to expect from Urthboy, fantastic nonetheless.
The Tongue was here to launch his debut album Shock and Awe, and as such was given the headline spot. Unfortunately he didn’t live up to the standard set by the preceding acts. Having seen him perform solo only once before, I’ve been much more impressed by his work supporting Ozi Batla with Astronomy Class. Good Looking saw him joined on stage by Spit Syndicate, and this was one of the highlights of the set. Similarly, when joined onstage by Jane Tyrrell (introduced as the “Australian Erykah Badu”), he seemed a little more at ease. The only track that he really rocked on his own was The Blues – a track about his skills at battling. Rest assured that he really did rock this track though, no doubt due to his pedigree as an outstanding battle MC. The first single from Shock and Awe called The Real Thing sounded flat and uninteresting, and I really don’t understand why it was chosen as the single, given the number of better tracks on the album.
Elefant Traks are arguably the premier independent hip-hop label in Australia (perhaps having some sort of time-share arrangement with Obese ), and they’ve gotten to where they are through hard work, perseverance and talent. It’s awesome to see that these artists can pack out venues like the Gaelic Club, and the talent of these performers’s is amazing. The Tongue is without a doubt the weak link on the ‘Three Strikes Tour’, but given time I have no doubt he’ll reach the standard of his label mates. Big ups to Elefant Traks – you’ve come a long way.
