DOOM @ The Espy, Melbourne(03/04/2011)

Wed 6th Apr, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Under his many guises (MF DOOM, Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah, Madvillain, among others), Daniel Dumile has made a habit of challenging and confounding people’s expectations. Of what a rapper should sound like, look like and rhyme about. Of what a live hip-hop performance should be like. It forms a large part of his appeal, and why his every move and project is so closely monitored. At times though, such as during some of his haphazard live shows or on the occasions when a masked imposter has taken the stage to perform in his place, it has come at a cost to his fans. As stimulating or thought-provoking as such exercises may be (or as Dumile would have you believe), they still lead to a certain degree of disappointment. This is a guy who damages his own reputation and doesn’t seem to care one bit.

That’s the sort of baggage Dumile carries with him into the country for his debut Australian tour. But he is DOOM; the rapper’s rapper, the endlessly quotable king of internet-approved hip-hop. People were always going to show up (despite the slug of $70-85). Only question was- which DOOM were we going to see?

Following laboured attempts at clearing Dexter’s equipment after his mixed DJ set of hip-hop and dubstep, the headliner’s Sunday start time was pushed close to midnight. When DOOM, the real, rotund villain, bounded out to stage though, the Espy exploded and all thoughts of Monday morning were forgotten. Metal face gleaming under the stage lights, he powered through six successive Madvillain cuts and it quickly shaped to be everything you could possibly want from a DOOM gig. Sure, the whole thing was short on spectacle; two small screens either side of stage alternated feebly between a live recording of the crowd and looped footage of DOOM messing around in front of a webcam. But with he and his indefatigable hype-man Big Benn Klingon loping about, working every corner of the stage, it’s all the gig needed. Indeed, given the immense size of the two, it’s hard to imagine fitting any more accoutrements onto the stage. Instead, punch-lines were accentuated by the two’s goofy onstage movements, with Beef Rap’s coupling of “Punks try and ask why ours be better?/Could be the iron mask or the Cosby sweater” resulting in DOOM slapping his own face before grabbing a handful of his partner’s somewhat dated attire.

His most recent full-length, 2008’s Born Like This, was a gruff, aggressively focused statement; a departure of sorts from the MF DOOM of old. Somewhat fittingly, that album was only represented by Ballskin and lead single Gazillion Ear. Otherwise, we got the all-singing, all-smiling, all-dancing DOOM. The one who shakes the hand of everyone in the front row and signs anything thrown at him (vinyl sleeves, t-shirts, caps and, oddly enough, an audio recorder). After Madvillainy, Mm…Food was the next best represented of his back-catalogue; Hoe Cakes, Kon Queso and One Beer joining Beef Rap on the crowd-pleasing setlist. Even Fazers from the King Geedorah project and Rhymes Like Dimes off 1999’s Operation Doomsday were given a run out.

There was, however, a slight pre-programmed feel to the night’s events, with beats sourced directly from an iPad that DOOM fumbled around with from time to time. When the set was moving at pace and the jaunty Accordian sample blended almost seamlessly into the rolling piano of All Caps, there was admittedly little to complain about. Yet as the gig progressed, there were som side-effects of that set-up which helped to chip away at the otherwise immersive quality of the performance. Despite offering a girl in the front row the chance to press a random button to choose the next song, there was a slight sense of déjà vu for those who had filed into the Espy’s Gershwin room the previous night as Benzi Box once again blasted out. Worse still was at the gig’s conclusion when, during an extended goodbye to the crowd following second encore closer Rhinestone Cowboy, the notes to set opener Accordion started up on the iPad once more.

But these were minor quibbles that, over the course of the night, didn’t serve to detract from the brilliantly enjoyable nature of the gig. And in truth, you would have been hard pressed to find anyone in the Espy who wouldn’t have been willing to do it all over again from the top.

So, for all that baggage and word of disaffecting live shows, the biggest, most shocking surprise of all was that DOOM put on two truly Great nights of hip-hop at the Espy. Whatever the Odd Future of hip-hop might hold, we were fortunate in this moment to have a true legend of the genre in our midst.

“The best emcee with no chain ya ever heard”