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Call it eye twinkling hip-hop arrogance, but Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco laid down his demands; Tuesday night is party night in Perth-town. There’s nothing quite like the leaving image of Fiasco’s drummer and guitarist unassumingly cruising around Metro City’s club foyer post gig signalling to an apparent entourage what soon becomes clear as the world’s greatest and most aspired to rock’n’roll cliché. And out come the golden tickets (or in this case green arm bands) to the worthy tits and bums slowly leaving the club. ‘They are for a private function’ replies a touring crewmember whose job description would make for a fantastic resume. For the rest of the punters, tinnitus and work the next day painfully awaits.

Four hours earlier, on the way in, the ever-friendly Metro City security staff welcome punters with their no bullshit down to business rules of the playground which this time include ‘hat no play’ – a twist off the old classic primary school initiative. Meanwhile during repetitive explanations, it’s evident that the metal detectors are just there for show and tell as every second punter’s keys set lights flashing and bells ringing to no effect. It leads you to question, as a handful of grumbles and caps come off, who’s got the image problem?

Sour grapes aside, there’s no disputing Metro City as one of Perth’s premium indoor concert venues on its nights off from being an r’n’b Ben Cousins-endorsed superclub. Badass sound system and multilayered audience vantage points; the ideal location for Lupe Fiasco’s highly anticipated return since his last energy driven, dazzling performance at The Big Day Out in 2009.

Opening the night and with a name like Lowrider, it’s easy to let the tragedy of prejudice paint a pre-image of another bland bogan emcee fumbling around his words about to take to the stage. Which is why you learn in class never to judge a book by its cover! Over East, the Adelaide born soul-hop four piece have been making big waves around stages to critical acclaim; even taking the enviable task of being The Hilltop Hood’s backing band at a Big Day Out. Think War’s 1975 album Why Can’t We Be Friends and you’ve got Lowrider’s name in a bag. This is a band with absolutely everything going for them. Poppy accessible hooks, a tight exciting live show that projects strong songwriting and musicianship from four hard hitting players commanding fixed attention from a crowd flocking in at the start of the night and being won over in the process. The audience grew from a couple of rows to a full house during the band’s set and people’s faces showed nothing but approval.

Under the lead of one of those frontman white guys whose got himself a case of the soul, Lowrider was like listening to Amy Winehouse without the trainwreck, The Dap Kings without the horns; and with singer Joe Braithwaite’s high energy confidence, it provoked many to follow suit in often unseen early support act dancing. For the few Lupe fan-girls who weren’t dancing and already clinging to the barrier at the front of stage, Braithwaite’s comical imitation of their crossed armed frowning head bob loosened even the toughest critics in the audience. With clever mashed up covers of the previously mentioned Winehouse and her Rehab song, Walk This Way into even The Next Episode, the band proved another reason why rocking up early is worth more than a good position.

In complete contrast, Phrase put on an uninspiring set of his sing along Triple J anthems that simply demonstrated that his and the crowd’s hearts weren’t truly in it tonight. His music generally isn’t anything new for Australian hip-hop but has stuck to a winning formula that has taken Phrase to where he is today. Maybe in a different environment where everyone’s minds weren’t growing impatient for Lupe, Phrase and band would feed off a more responsive audience, but the live show felt forced and something that didn’t quite translate well from the recording.

On Fiasco’s last tour, he brought along a large energetic jazz trained band that transformed his music into an exciting live realm and left people raving for days. With this in mind, the lengthy wait before he took to the stage seemed worth the while for a decent sound check. However shortly, it became apparent the band had been considerably scaled down when a large keyboard stack and bass to say the least didn’t join with a simple setup of drums, guitar and DJ combo filling the stage. The wait was nothing more than casual anticipation brewing amongst a restless eager crowd.

Hip Hop in a live scenario tends to take two directions; the rock star balls-out-everything-thrashed approach or the smooth-funk-jazz pathway where the musicianship is as tight as Lupe’s amazing lyrical flow. This time round the opening shred of a clichéd power rock guitar left nothing to the imagination and the night had taken it’s turn.

For many who placed Lupe’s Big Day Out stage show on a pedestal amongst De La Soul’s infamous 20th Anniversary tour and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip appearances at Good Vibes, there was definitely a confused sense for this new direction. Someone was heard commenting that the show was more like a rock concert than hip hop gig and with overplayed drums to an excess of cymbals and guitar stabs it almost felt like a classic DJ / emcee combo would have done much more justice to Lupe’s amazing word play. The subtlety of musicianship at the Big Day Out performance pushed Lupe’s vocals to the front instead of fighting with them.

However, discarding any previous expectations, there’s nothing quite like being at a Lupe Fiasco show on a Tuesday Perth night. As a frontman, Lupe works, engages, jumps over every inch of the stage and still has time for that one smile into the crowd you feel was just directed at you. Numbers off his The Cool album Go Go Gadget Flow and Hip Hop Saved My Life took a cheery crowd into a huge sing along and that spread a buzz around the club. What was advertised as The Cool Tour was presented on the night as the We Are Lasers Tour promoting the upcoming album which left a large hole in the middle of Lupe’s set when he possibly tested a little too much new material on fresh ears. Without the album released to back the new songs, there wasn’t the sense of familiarity audiences like. In particular, a slow song, possibly from the upcoming album sent the restlessness threshold over the limit with conversations breaking out. With hits Kick Push and Superstar bringing back energy and the crowd, the show was over, leaving some feeling a little undersold this time round.

Oh but of course! The house lights are still down but say …. just say, what if he doesn’t do an encore this time round? They DO, do encores right!? Sarcasm aside, the answer to all questions is a few thousand stamping feet and then ‘surprise’ Lupe Fiasco is back. What does become the surprise, however, is that the encore feels like the start of a completely new show. There is a new fire, a new energy which Red Bull’s banging for a promotion deal on that has set Lupe and band catching up to a not so distant Big Day Out memory. Like a coach had sat them down at half time for an uplifting pep talk, the encore was a generous second helping that paid off a dragging middle with a huge finish on Daydreamin’ which took Lupe’s energy to a whole new level as he conducted the crowd in a massive sing along with his microphone.

Throw in some fun interplay between drummer and guitarist thrashing their instruments in a death metal faceoff and you’ve got yourself … a hip hop show? Yes, with Lupe’s fun loving charm, cheeky sparkle and amazing word play; damn straight you’ve got yourself a hip hop show!

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