April 27, 2006
Prince of Wales: Resin Dogs, Def Wish Cast & Hermitude...
For those who don't know, which I'm guessing is anyone who is reading this, I recently went to an Aussie Hip-Hop show at the Prince of Wales, Melbourne. Resin Dogs were the headliners with Def Wish Cast and Hermitude as the supporting acts along with some guest MC’s for the Resin Dogs set.
DJ G-San was there from the start playing some pretty cool tracks. He was mixing up some hip-hop - mainly artists from the US like Jurassic 5 - and then throwing in a few old soul tracks as well like Marlena Shaw’s “California Soul”. Anyway he was there until about 10:30 pm just setting the mood and waiting for the crowd to build up. He was doing a pretty good job of it too adding in a bit of scratching in between tracks and mixing in the tracks between each other.
After he went off Def Wish Cast were up with Katch from the Resin Dogs on the tables. I’m guessing that he’ll be doing the beats for the new Def Wish Cast album which is due “hopefully June” on the Hydro Funk label. Anyway, for people who don’t know about Def Wish Cast, they are Aussie hip-hop pioneers and were doing their stuff in the late 80’s to mid 90’s. They then went missing from the scene and I’m not sure why – it might have something to do with one of their MC’s having a big dent with a scar on the side of his head – but they’re back now and they’re producing some pretty good stuff.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from them, but when they were up on stage they were really good. Not only was the rhyming well executed, they were also interacting with the crowd and break dancing in between verses (including my favourite, the robot). Their upcoming album is certainly one to look out for as the new tracks they were performing were sounding pretty nice.
Def Wish Cast said their thank you's and good byes and Hermitude were then setting up to come on. Elgusto on the tables and Dubs on the keys. I wasn’t quite sure how they’d sound live but they pulled it off really well doing some live mixes of songs as well as making up a couple of tracks on the spot. With no MC's it was a bit hard to keep the crowd interested in the tracks but they were calling out to the crowd getting them to interact too which was a good thing (I’m all for crowd interaction!) I found that towards then end of their set I was getting a little bored as they sort of went from hip-hop to jungle and drum n bass. I like that sort of thing but I wasn’t in the mood for it.
They packed up and the Resin Dogs started organizing their mics and instruments (they were in their live band mode which was something to look forward to. Keys, guitar, drums, turntables and double bass). Once they had everything set up out came Abstract Rude, Mystro and Hau, who was wearing an elephant mask. From memory they started up with the new track Definition. It was good because there were some screens set up and they had the lyrics to the choruses so people could join in if they wanted to. The live band was sounding really good too.
Abstract Rude and Mystro were really into it and were really involving the crowd while Hau was more standing at the back just participating. Anyway they performed a few new songs which I’m guessing will be on the upcoming Resin Dogs album. I thought they sounded pretty good too so I’m looking forward to it being released. Along with the new tracks a few older ones came out.
It was weird, they finished one song and somebody climbed up onto the stage. The person looked like they were pretty drunk too but they were trying to talk to one of the guys from the Resin Dogs. Katch was telling him to get back down and was pointing him to get off but the guy kept standing there. Finally a big bouncer guy who was doing the sound levels or something got onto the stage, picked up the guy and carried him off like a baby to the back of the stage and then threw him down the stairs! That’s not the funny bit though, I’ll come back to this later!
Anyway, part way through one of the Resin Dog’s new tracks called A Destructive Circle (which is about greed and how “money don’t make the man”) they all stopped, bobbed down behind their instruments and on the screens they had a video going which was pretty much about the US attacking Iraq etc and was asking who is going to be next? Iran, North Korea etc. That went for a few minutes and then they started up the song again. It was pretty interesting.
After doing an encore which included one of the members of Def Wish Cast, Mystro said that there was an announcement to be made “somebody is getting married” to which a small group of people walked to the front of the stage. A girl got up and was acting like a bit of a dick (drunk, drugs or both) and then Mystro asked where the guy was. One of the guys who was with the girl said something to Mystro and he then said “oh it was the drunk guy! That guy who got thrown off! Well I think he might have been a bit too drunk to propose anyway! Where is he?” to which somebody said that he was still out the back or got kicked out or something!
So anyway it was a really good night. The only thing which was annoying was the few dickheads who were on drugs/really intoxicated and were dancing into me. It’s annoying when this happens because it takes your focus off the music and puts it onto the person. I ended up elbowing a guy really hard in the back one time and he moved off a little and then came back so I ended up moving.
So Def Wish Cast and also the Resin Dogs have new albums coming out which both should be really good. All the artists which performed were really good live so if you get the chance to see any of them go and do it. Hermitude are traveling overseas for the next few months too so for anybody overseas go and check them out if you can.
Posted by ed at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2005
croque monsieur update
I got along to the Croque Monsieur gig at Bar open this weekend, and I'd like to retract my earlier statement about them being cool. They're DAMN COOL - they put on a fun show, and seeing them in a music venue setting gave me a whole another appreciation for the kind of thing they do. Lots of folks up and dancing and getting into it. Very good energy in the crowd and on stage. If you do get into crazy mixed up gypsy (or gippy) tunes then check them out next time they're playing near you if you get a chance.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:46 PM | Comments (3)
April 18, 2005
youthweek concert
Direct from the new music news forum we have these words from the fronline of the youth week concert in Marrickville by forumer and all around good person afisenni! Take it away my friend!
Wooooo yesterday Marrickville council held a free concert in a park for Youth Week...I tend to ramble so I'll just summarise.
Itu - a woman with a nice voice, a guitar and a dude playing unusual percussion. Pretty nice but at that stage there were only about 20 people in the park and nobody was particularly into it.
The Accidents- ugliest band ever.
78 Saab- WOOOOOOOOOOOO! Even though I only have the Beat Of Your Drum EP, and most of the songs they played were from the album, I enjoyed it a lot. Yess we were sitting on the hard hard grass right in the front 8) haha. Although they weren't particularly charismatic or crowd-engaging (except for the tambourinist who also played a bit of keyboard - he was one awesome dancer), the audience seemed to really enjoy it. :D They were the best...no bias there. Woo so after their set I went and got a photo with three of them, but they were all like "Yes photo, sure, but we have to still be able to drink our beer" except I didn't really have anything to say to them so hmm :?
ANYWAY they were followed by the Redsunband who my friend had been whining about but I liked them...although it wasn't exactly park music. I dunno man. Not a lot to say about them :?
Lastly were the Cops. At this point, a weird, very drunk old man was dancing right in front of the stage, soon to be joined by a couple of my friends, and that was a bit distracting (so was the pain of sitting on the grass/dirt for a few hours). They were really fun though, really enjoyable. I liked them except I think it was just the vibe they created - if I were to listen to them now, in a totally different environment I'd probably be bored. Or weirded out, who knows.
Goddamn that wasn't brief. It wasn't particularly interesting either. Except for the 78 Saab bit hehe :)
Posted by funnelbc at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)