Dizzee Rascal @ The Enmore,Sydney (24/01/10)

Fri 29th Jan, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Dizzee Rascal on a Sunday night when the majority of attendees were probably hungover and still suffering from mild heat exhaustion from their stint at Big Day Out initially felt like a pretty difficult sell. Particularly as he’d already annoyed us earlier at BDO with his incessant on-stage banter that was kind of just a string of incoherent hollerings that none of us knew quite what to do with.

Because let’s face it – no one wants to hear Dizzee speak. Fortunately though, the British MC’s sideshow saw him keep the banter to a minimum as he took his furious performance to floor-rumbling heights. The man is a veritable bundle of energy, and when I say ‘bundle,’ I mean, ‘of highly volatile dynamite sticks.’

Exploding into action with his DJ, who would fluctuate between actually contributing and just looking like he was contributing from behind his lofty decks, and perennial offsider MC, with whom he would swagger (yes, swagger) back and forth across the stage, Dizzee launched into the Tiësto-produced Bad Behaviour. An odd choice of opener, really, as the song tends towards the monotonous fairly early on, but he backed it up with Road Rage and Tongue N’ Cheek’s Freaky Freaky, which of course was preceded by a brief obligatory “shout out to the ladies.”

What was particularly great about having the show in the Enmore is for once there was no Barrier of Disappointment cruelly bisecting the crowd into those who could dance, and those who would make a feeble, defeated attempt at dancing before resigning themselves to appreciative nods because they took too long to buy their damn tickets. Without the barrier, there was enough room for the kids to break out their best hip hop dance moves and enough room for everyone around them to take a step back before they got a sweaty arm to the cheek.

Flex had the entire room jumping collectively or writhing provocatively, catering for the pre-_Tongue_ fans where the absence of classics like I Luv U left them wanting. It’s a tough ask to turn the Enmore Theatre into something that would rival a grimy club crawling with sweaty revelers, but with this sex-fuelled banger of a track as belted out by the two pacing live-wire MC’s is as close as you’re likely to get. Easing out of Flex with the help of the closing verse of David Guetta’s Sexy Chick, which of course was lapped up particularly eagerly by the tightly-packed pocket of fans in the top right-hand corner nearest the stage, complete with a few topless “bros,” no less, Dizzee kept the pace constant with newer tracks, Chillin’ Wiv Da Man Den and Sirens.

Following a brief cheering battle between opposing sides of the audience, Fix Up, Look Sharp was quite the spectacle as the walls reverberated heavily with its robust bassline, before an intermission of sorts saw the stage cleared while predictable crowd-pleasers by Busta Rhymes and House of Pain killed the time. Bursting back into view with Money Money and Pussyole, which followed the usual introductory hollers to the crowd from Dizzee beseeching them to “Don’t make me get old skooool!” the second half of the show had even more intensity than the first.

Having squirreled away the likes of Dance Wiv Me, Holiday, and the track that pretty much has a life of its own now, Bonkers, till the very end, Dizzee kept the crowd well and truly enthralled for every sweaty moment, proving just how much extra energy we can collectively muster on a Sunday night with the right kind of inspiration.

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