There was a menacing vibe in the air on Saturday night in the city, whether you were chatting to boozed rugby nuts or just regular Saturday sinners, everybody seemed to be out to do a serious number on themselves with no intention of going home until they’d toasted the rising Sunday sun. The ones who were onto it though, started the night by getting their trigger fingers on and bouncing along, bumper to bumper in a sold out Capitol party bus to the unmistakable good time sounds of Australia’s only trustworthy political party The Herd.
Resembling something of a Una bomber convention with the amount of hoodies that were being worn, the Capitol was pumping Aussie hip hop fuel (ridiculously cheap fuel at $25 a ticket as well) for four solid hours. The Last Kinection were the perfect warm up to The Herd and it was obvious why they had been asked to join the Summerland tour. An indigenous 3 piece with outspoken lyrics regarding the mistreatment and misconception of Aboriginal people in Australia they set the political mood for the evening as well as injecting a whole lot of hip hop love into the veins of the eager punters below them. Female MC’s always seem to have this incredible knack for breakneck flow and MC Nay was no exception, spitting line after line into the smallest time frames possible. A battle with her and Macromantics would be damn hot!
After an embarrassing interlude of 2007 hottest 100 tracks which did nothing but undermine the musical intelligence of the capacity crowd, The Herd gathered on stage, whipping the crowd into a sing along frenzy with We Can’t Hear You. Their voices were in scintillating form; while their recent solo work has been outstanding, nothing is quite as good as when they are reunited. Jane Tyrell was an absolute darling, Urthboy was on fire, mainlining the crowds energy and Ozi Batla, with his ‘Such is Life’ Ben Cousins piss-take shirt, was exuding the dry sense of humour that has penned some of the band’s most memorable lyrics. When there’s eight laid back Aussies on a stage with the purpose of having a good time, then a good time is what results. A fucking good time too.
They followed up We Can’t Hear You with 2020, off the Summerland LP and this track is bound to become a live favourite. With the Bob Marley-esque lead-in riff and a chorus which rolls off the tongue and cries out to be chanted, it is a powerful addition to The Herd’s live arsenal. Burn Down the Parliament was given some reggae refurbishing which probably didn’t connect with the crowd as much as the original, mainly because the change in timing and delivery makes it difficult to sing along with. I Was Only 19 was stirring as always, the haunting sample of John Schuman never fails to humble a crowd no matter how maggot they are or how much they are pinging, and there were plenty of people in both states to test this theory on.
After unveiling some more of the worldly sounds off their new album and claiming this was one of the best Perth crowds they had ever played to, Unkle Ho set the triumphant string infused introduction of the King is Dead spinning to close the set. The crowd roared. Easily one of, if not the best Aussie track that has been released so far this year; it is the anthem of the politically aware post 9/11, post Invasion of Iraq and most importantly post John Howard generation of Australian youth. There was a true sense of companionship and achievement with everyone in the joint singing ‘finally the king is dead we cried off with his head’, some were probably Liberal voters as well. The crowd remained loud well after the stars had left the stage, which called for an obligatory encore and they got one. It came in the form of 77% which received the same adjustments as Burn Down The Parliament except they resurrected the track’s funky origins for the last verse and left the crowd burning with energy for the bouncers to deal with later. An absolute cracker of a show and no one will tell you otherwise.
