On Wednesday night, I headed down to The Metro to catch UK nu-ravers Hadouken! at their Sydney sideshow. Fresh off the back of a weekend rocking the masses at Splendour In The Grass, the Leeds five-piece came on stage shortly before 11pm to an impressively sized crowd. The mob were unreservedly keen, having loosened up appropriately to the seedy sounds of Pomomofo and some thumping drumwork from fellow Sydneysiders Teenagers In Tokyo.
Opening with high-speed anthem Get Smashed Gate Crash, the joint was instantly transformed into a moshing, air-punching sea of twenty-somethings. Racing through the majority of the numbers off their debut album Music For an Accelerated Culture, the hooded James Smith was barely audible over the thunderous bass and grime ridden sirens. Regardless of the drowning sound, it was clear that Hadouken! were in Sydney for a good time, not a long time. This was barn storming, welcome zeitgeist rapture for the Red Bull generation. Spitting crass rhymes about drink, drugs, girls and debts the outfit had the constituency crashing into each other with full hedonistic abandon. Tracks that elicited the biggest roars on the night were very aptly Crank It Up and Liquid Lives as the beers and smiles flowed freely.
Only on stage for an hour or so, Hadouken! gatecrashed the Metro, irresponsibly riled up Sydneys youth, threw two fingers up and swayed off stage – and we couldn’t get enough of it! Hadouken! clearly have the adoring fans, even this far from home, but it remains to be seen whether the “two lovers, two brothers and a guy named Chris” can follow up on the promise of their début with a solid second album – but fuck it, it’ll be fun joining them on their journey!
Welcome to our world, we are the wasted youth, and we are the future.
yazzie says...
they rocked it at splendour! so wish they done a sideshow in brisbane :(
amac23 says...
Yep, second that. Kicked arse at Splendour