It was certainly a case of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 LIFTOFF!! at Shape on Saturday night for N.A.S.A’s first visit to Perth. Tickets were harder to come by than swine flu medicine and many punters were unfortunately left wanting at the door. Checking the Habitat Room on entering, the dancefloor wasn’t really getting to excited yet, despite some delightful techy sounds on show from the Habiregulars. Outside had the usual quotient of smokers and chatters but it was clear upstairs was clearly the place to be. The top level was absolutely PACKED and the vibe was anticipation at its best with this sort of a crowd not seen for a while at one of Perth’s best (figuratively) underground venues.

North America South America took 6 six years to gather their unbelievably hip roster of guest vocalists for debut Spirit of Apollo. Being billed as a ‘live’ show with ticket prices clearly representing this, pre-set debate was raging as to what sort of show would be served up to clearly excited fans. Would they bring an MC with them to replicate verses of the superstar rappers on their LP? Would they be playing live keys and drums to accapellas? The response was clearly mixed when just before their 1pm start time, CDJs were unplugged, turntables moved around and laptops set into stands. A roadie got the beat started before American Sam Spiegel (Squeak) and Brazilian Ze Gonzales (Zegon) appear behind the decks looking well, a little older than one expected, but definitely very excited to be here and pumped up the crowd with great ease. Kicking things off with a little snippet of Kanyeezy, they quickly upped the tempo with a series of mashups that include some Pink Floyd, Tag Team’s Whoop There It Is and a little Robot Rock from the French crown princes. A rocking start if not a little unexpected. The BPMs were about 30 above the usual 100 for a regular hip hop gig and it became clear that this was going to be an electro based set with smatterings of what ever else they deemed necessary. Spinning from two turntables, running Serato or Traktor and dual laptops and various other controllers, N.A.S.A truly were getting things moving with no shortage of enthusiasm on their behalf in the booth. Some Does It Offend You, Yeah? made an appearance with We Are Rockstars, followed by DJ Mujava’s smash from last year Township Funk. The visuals were also quality with all sorts of images and animations running riot on the newly installed flat-screens behind the decks. Methodman made his first spiritual appearance of the night with an electro remix of Wu Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. and James Brown joined the party with I Feel Good. One particular punter felt a little too good and for the possibly the first time ever, stage dived over the raised DJ booth and onto the decks and into Zegon, who was none too pleased at the situation. Perhaps after a while he may have been able to appreciate the humor of the failed superman attempt, as most of the crowd did, and after a couple of quick adjustments, the beats were again pumping and the dancefloor resumed its heaving. After what seemed like just a couple of minutes, the volume lowered, lights dimmed and the king of autotune himself Kanye West appeared on the screens in the booth to give shoutouts to his homeboys N.A.S.A. as they launched into current single Gifted. A fantastic if a little cheesy touch added to the atmosphere as Method Man emerged from the closet again to lend his talents to the hands-in-the-air hip hop hooks of N.A.S.A. Music.

With the two hours of their set flying by, the duo big their farewells and retired back to the Space Shuttle Discovery to leave a very happy Perth crowd in their wake. Again the broad term of a ‘live’ show can be questioned (it seems anything that includes a laptop is considered ‘live’), but the crowd certainly left with smiles on dials that will ensure a similar result if they choose to return to the West Coast anytime soon.