De La Soul @ Esplanade Hotel,Melbourne (30/04/09)

Tue 5th May, 2009 in Gig Reviews

You have to give credit to a band like De La Soul. Formed in New York’s Long Island district, the three piece not only provided a new NY rap sound but pioneered a musical and cultural movement. Visiting Australia as part of the Groovin The Moo festival, St Kilda’s Esplanade Hotel put on mini-festival which joined De La with local and international based DJs. On paper, the night looked like a stunner and very little could go wrong. But concerts are not held on paper, and this night at the Espy had more than a few issues to contend with.

Split up over the venue’s three rooms were a mixture of DJs in addition to the evening’s headliner. The front bar housed mainstream sounds, The basement was the home for underground, while Gershwin hosted DJs focused on technique. Plenty of music meant that punters could go from stage to stage with not a moment of downtime. Local DJ Manchild welcomed wristbanded folks through the Espy’s doors, while punters already inside sipped on beers. The soundtrack was made up of James Brown era soul and grooves, with breaks and new school hip-hop dominating the set near the end. The Gershwin opens up a tad later with Gsan scratching up hip-hop and reggae as base rattles through the room. Later on he brings out Arko Jukes singer Eliza Wolfgram to provide some live vocals, creating essentially a live mixtape to the Gershwin room visitors.

With the front bar starting to fill up, another Melbournian hit the stage. MAFIA provided mainstream hip-hop and dance which got the crowd moving – Dr. Dre, Arrested Development, Destiny’s Child, Jurassic 5, even a garage remix of Paper Planes. The crowd danced and MAFIA looked pretty happy performing, mouthing most of the words to each track she spun. However those wanting some technique in their DJing were left with nothing at all – MAFIA cross faded between tracks at sometimes random intervals, with the occasional phantom scratch or beatmatch screw-up blasted over the speakers. Definitely not a standout DJ set, but the majority of the crowd approved.

Koolism’s very own DJ Danielsan continues where Gsan left off, scratching up sample heavy classics from the 90s. Yet most of the crowd seem to be at the main bar for a twenty minute set from Joel Turner. Would the crowd be treated to an extended remix of These Kids? Fortunately not, however what was on offer was arguably better. Following a few tracks with Corey Hart fan C4, Turner treated the audience to a beatbox showcase with versions of the Transformers theme and Seven Nation Army amongst others. Who would have thought that it would go over well?

By the time Cut Chemist hit the Gershwin stage there was a line out into the hallway waiting to see the “true star of Juno.” With a second person off to his right controlling video sequences that managed to stay in sync with the music, Cut gave the crowd live versions of tracks off his solo album The Audience’s Listening and interludes from his work as part of Jurassic 5, breaking 7-inches for all to see.

New York based DJ J Period asks the crowd if there ‘are any real hip-hop heads in the house,’ essentially a question that would be rephrased better as ‘is the sky blue?’ Best known for his recent Best of mixtapes for The Roots and Q-Tip, J Period took us on a tour of the United States – first the boroughs of New York, then to the wild wild west of California, then to the dirty south and so on. The crowd ate it up and got excited, so J Period decided to end on a high note with a selection of Native Tongues tracks. Yet not even 15 seconds into Scenerio, he was told to shut up shop. Wish we knew why…

Then it began – not the set from De La Soul, but the wait for them to start. With most of the band’s – The Rhythm Roots All-Stars – gear set up on stage, not much else needed to be set up on stage. J Period left the stage at 12:20am with De La set to hit the stage at 12:45. Yet to reasons unknown to the audience, the set kicked off at 1:30am. At first the crowd was positive, chanting ‘De La’ and cheering when each song of the interlude music faded out. But things turned aggressive quickly.

The already packed front bar got increasingly more packed, with people from behind attempting to push themselves forward to get a view of the stage. The crowd started booing due to the wait. People got into fights with security unable to do anything due to the squashed audience spread out across the bar floor. Others gave up and watched from upstairs. When members of the Rhythm Roots All-Stars finally hit the stage, they got a reaction they were probably not expecting – loud jeering.

When Posdnuos, Trugoy, and DJ Maseo finally hit the stage the crowd gave off a good response, but what followed wasn’t worth the lengthy wait. Not to say that Posdunos and Trugoy were bad in any way – the two were full of energy, each representing a side of the audience to get them to cheer louder as they went through audience favourites. Maseo provided cuts on track with a bit of commentary in between, seemingly upset at a crowd member video recording each song. The real letdown of the evening was the music coming from the live band. Whereas live bands generally improve hip-hop shows, the Rhythm Roots All-Stars sounded muddy, detracting from classics like Me Myself and I. With 15 people jammed onto a tiny stage, one has to wonder if the sound problem was simply a lack of space.

Some punters gave up, leaving the venue to the lateness of the gig, the squeezed together audience, or the sound being pumped into the main bar. Others stayed ‘til the end to take it all in, wondering out loud if this would be the last time De La would visit Australian shores. If punters paid $85 just for De La Soul, they probably went home disappointed. Simply put – a loaded lineup, but too many people, too little space, and too much waiting. A shame – what could have been an instant classic when it comes to live music ended up barely okay on a whole.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FORM THE GIG HERE