02/08/2003 @ the Gaelic Club
the Bird
Baggsmen
Hermitude
The cream of the crop of Sydney underground breaks, hip-hop, dub, d'n b, dancehall reggae and what have you. Basically anything and everything electronic, except house and trance.
Got there early, as always. Me and my mate from uni had a half hour of bumming around drinking and waiting for something to happen. Bullshiting about this that and whatever nonsense.
First act up on the night was the instrumental hip-hop kids of Hermitude. Keyboard and turntables. I�ve seen them before, but this time it was different. Well, for one, because I had seen them before, this time I know better and we moved up front right away! There was some dub, some electro, some breaks, some �dancehall�. They�re best when they do electro-breaks, I reckon. An excellent set, I especially love their �tribute to electro�, an awesome mash up of electro / booty-tech sounds that is really up there with the best of them. Sonic Animation / Infusion better watch out, these kids are on their way up.
Baggsmen. Drums, bass guitar, flute, keyboard and vocals. Seeing them for the 3rd time now. They�ve been a bit hit and miss the previous times I�d seen them. This time they have three people on vocals for them. A very good thing. A most unique blend of live drum�n bass mixed and mashed up with reggae, dub, hip-hop, jazzy flutes and some other shit I don�t know the name of. Starts out fairly hard. We were foolish enough to once again be seduced to the space just in front of the speaker stacks for the extra dancing space. (Note to self: I�m too old for that spot these days.) so in the little corner we were dancing our arses off. Baggsmen are alright. They even did a heavy rock number! I wish they�d just stick to drum�n bass, though. Or big beat. That�s when they really excel.
The Bird. Drums, keyboard, tabla and vocals. These fellers are mad. There is no point denying it. They just come in, say there�s no point to building it up as the Baggsmen already built it up enough, let�s just get into it, and BANG! Hard core tribal drum�n bass action non-stop. A very suiting image of a hairy monkey/man beating tribal drums on the screen in the background. A new rapper I�d never seen them play with before came out to lay down some sorta reggae style vocals. Then the mad drummer does some simple free style shit. �hope you got the energy to keep up with me! Hope you got the energy�� If we could we would. This is so freaking awesome, words cannot do it justice. (stay tuned for contraband recordings later, maybe.) My mate had to leave, he couldn�t take much more. I stayed on for another half hour or so of this high energy business. There was no dub chill out bit this time. They just kept the energy levels turned to 11, if you know what I�m saying. The Bird, once again, an experience unlike any other.
Then what? The posters said something about the Bird vs. the Baggsmen live breaks battle. What�s all that about? Well, when the Bird finished their solo set, they made a call out to get the Baggsmen and Hermitude back on to the stage, and with everyone back together, they just started jamming some shit together. And it was good shit. The bass guitar and flutes of the Baggsmen, the funky keyboards of Hermitude, the drums of the Bird. They all came together and took turns to lead the big band. Starting from slow dub, building up to some crazy wacky big beat business with flutes and electronic b-lines. It was a messy mash up that was also very fun. 20 minutes into that, I had to go catch the last train back Hornsby way.
Deepchild was meant to spin some of his sweet dub beats after everyone else, but it was already 2 am and i couldn't stay any longer.
All in all, dope as fuck.
top five gig ever!
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