Wow. What a night.
This gig had promised to be fantastic even from looking at the line-up – six hours of pure Aussie hip hop, with only small breaks between each short and punchy set. Little did I know, never having been to the Forum before, that it would also be in one of the best and most well-suited venues to hip hop in Sydney, with three levels of standing space and several bars. Walking into the venue, we were first offered small blue Elefant Traks flags with the trademark elephant. We were smiling already. One metre on, there was a sign saying ‘BAR this way!’, which was without any crowded lines, and it was officially the best night ever.
Unfortunately we only heard Unkle Ho from the line outside while we waited to get in – the venue was starting to buzz even at 8pm. After meeting the bartenders and getting our first of many vodkas, Astronomy Class took to the stage with their interesting combo of dub and hip hop. I’d only seen them before at The Great Escape a couple of years ago, but the venue there was packed to the doors and I was less than coherent. This time their set was tight and mellow, but perhaps too much dub and not enough hip hop beats for a crowd that was ready to dance and party on. Ozi Batla, Sir Robbo and Chasm, as well as their grooving bass player, are all extremely talented musicians, and remembering that they were very early on in the line-up, they really did a great job at setting a mellow vibe and keeping everyone entertained without raising the testosterone levels of the front row too early.
I can’t emphasise enough how good short sets and quick change-overs were at this gig. No one seemed to get bored, sets were perfectly timed to allow other acts to get their allocated set time and no one was selfish enough to push their limits in encores and drawn out endings. Ten minutes after Astronomy Class had left the stage, Urthboy was out and the crowd was electric. I’m still not sure why this act was put on so early – perhaps Tim was too modest to give his own group a later set time – but the crowd was jumping like anything and yelling along with the lyrics more so than during any other set of the night. Urthboy and gorgeous singer Jane Tyrrell were dressed in pirate get-up (hook and all) and the crowd was taken in hook, line and sinker. Ha! Over Before It Began was substantially better than the original version with Mia Dyson on vocals, We Get Around got the crowd really excited and his newer tracks even went down well. It was great to see Urthboy doing some really high energy gigs again.
Horrowshow are a fantastic new addition to the Elefant Traks crew. It was obvious that many of the crowd had not yet been privy to their innovative stylings, but they still managed to keep the vibe high and produce some really quality tracks to get the crowd jumping. The Tongue with DJ Skoob once again were a stand-out performance – largely due to the mid-blowing work from three-time NSW DMC champion Skoob whose self-confidence (I won’t say arrogance) is as extreme as his skills. The Tongue was not as drunk as I’ve seen him in other live shows – though that’s not to say he wasn’t totally smashed. It was a fun, loose and awesome set that kept the energy growing to almost boiling point in the huge venue.
Hermitude brought things back down to a more mellow level with their simply incredible instrumental work. Their music has an indefinable quality that has seen it raise to levels on their new album Threads that is at the pinnacle of Australian music and worthy of world-wide recognition. They jammed out on their little press-buttons-make-noisey-keyboardy things, and the crowd went wild. By this time it was getting pretty late, people were getting pretty drunk, but it was still running nearly on time and the sets hadn’t begun to drag.
The Herd performing last in this evening of extreme talent had a strange effect for me – while they are the most popular and well-known of the Elefant Traks label and a collaboration of all the various crews we had seen, it didn’t have the same distinctive vibe of each group and instead sacrificed the individualism which is the vibrant factor of the other sets. I wouldn’t say the songs sounded bland in comparison, but they didn’t allow each member to shine, nor did was the whole greater than each of its parts. As a birthday celebration it was a perfect gesture – all the performers and members able to perform together and celebrate their success, however I wasn’t able to keep interest beyond their more well-known older tracks that still hold a special place in my heart.
In the end, it was a truly fantastic night, the quality and energy of which I hadn’t experienced in a long time. It just went to show that the prejudices held towards hip hop shows for packed venues, violent crowds and drunken fools is completely unfounded. With almost empty bars, friendly and respectful crowds and an absolute lack of pushiness or violence in any area of the standing section (that I was aware of, anyway), there was a huge sense of happiness, fun and celebration that is rarely seen at dance venues or indeed any high-capacity live show these days. As I’ve said before in another hip hop review, the moral of this story is, listen to more hip hop.
