It’s never a good sign to walk into the Corner Hotel and see that the far bar is closed, but it’s an even worse sign when a large curtain has been drawn to close off a third of the bandroom. Def Jux co-founder El-P was the evening’s headliner and while he isn’t the most well known name in hip-hop today, hip-hop heads known he is a man who brings it. How did it all go down? Let’s find out.

For those who showed up to the Corner early, Melbourne disk jockey Gsan opened things with a mixture of tunes to a largely lifeless crowd. Spinning everything from 70s American soul and funk to reggae jams, Gsan provided a great backing track while punters took in beers and conversation. At one stage the bass was shaking so hard that the illuminated toilet signs rattled off their fixtures. A few hip-hop tracks from Atmosphere and Hieroglyphics were worked in, but Gsan left the hip-hop to a second set later on, mixing up favourites from Dead Prez, DJ Shadow, Jay-Z and M.O.P. Satisfactory sets from Gsan made for a good start to the evening.

From the first song of Melbourne industrial rapper Ivens it became obvious why he was picked to be El-P’s support – Ivens industrial rap consisted of complex wordplay over sludgy beats. With Gsan sticking around on the 1s and 2s and Plutonic Lab behind a bass guitar instead of his usual drumkit, words flew from the MCs mouth with speed and fury. From A Grudge to One Last Trek messages came out so quickly that if you were stuck thinking about what Ivens just said, you had missed a couple of bars. 94 and Counting had the man asking for confirmation for an enemy in his sights, but the highlight was Well Oiled Machine had hardcore fans grabbing the mic themselves to scream the chorus. An excellent selection for a warm-up act.

With DJ Mr. Dibbs spinning Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World as an intro tune, the 200 or so people crowded closely to the stage waiting for El-P. Once done, the familiar opening beats of Tasmanian Pain Coaster kicked in and hype-man The Mighty Quin kicked off the track. The chorus hits and the ski-jacket wearing El-P joins us, urging the crowd to “cop a feel or two” whilst rocking out with his mic stand. ”Do you want to hear some happy music tonight?” the Brooklyn producer and MC asks. “Well we don’t have any of that shit” he blasts before getting stuck into Smithereens (Stop Cryin’). The setlist stuck to El-P’s second release I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead for the most part, but Mr. Dibbs was still able to mix it up, blending the instrumental of Montell Jordan’s This Is How We Do It onto the end of EMG.

A scratch session/interlude from Dibbs had the man attempt to light up the insides of doll’s head whilst scratching up Crooklyn Clan, Joni Mitchell, Pharoahe Monch and Rage Against The Machine. The rapper resumed with Constellation Funk, getting the crowd jumping in the process but performances of The Overdramatic Truth and Poisenville Kids No Wins had El-P performing at his best of the entire evening, full of emotion and spirit. Another smoke break and it was time for the encore, Tuned Mass Damper which got the crowd pumping their fists towards the stage. Finally, El-P leads the crowd in a traditional chant, one where he gets the crowd to chant Melbourne to his Def Jux. The three performers exit the stage and the crowd stand wanting more, but don’t get it this time.

Despite the somewhat small crowd, El-P brought it and then some, bringing a passionate performance to quality tunes. Some more tracks off his earlier album Fantastic Damage would have been nice, but given how strong the show was on a whole you’d be hard pressed to find anyone complaining. It was nine years since El-P had toured Australia, hopefully he comes back sooner following the release of his third album.