Drapht, Mantra @ Billboard,Melbourne (22/04/2011)

Fri 22nd Apr, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Drapht is doing pretty well for himself these days. If his number one album and certified-platinum single weren’t proof enough of that, the line stretching well into Chinatown before the Billboard doors opened on Saturday night definitely should be.

Unfortunately line issues means that I, along with many others, spent all of Sydney emcee The Tongue’s set stuck out on the street. On finally entering a packed room, one was greeted with a bone-shattering wall of bass and the sight of Obese Records emcee Mantra whipping the crowd into a frenzy. The Victorian local showed off a stage-presence that had the entire place eating from his hand, completely dominating the stage without a hype-man in sight. He made the whole thing look pretty easy, and the crowd only got more excited throughout the duration of his 45-minute time slot. While his music may have lacked the sing-a-long choruses needed to really claim the night, Mantra had plenty of arms thrown in the air and plenty of hooded and baseball-capped heads nodding along.

Drapht’s band appeared on-stage to kick things off without him, and the whole room was already jumping when he bounced onto the stage and into his first verse. Even though it is barely three weeks old, the setlist was stacked with tracks from his lastest effort The Life of Riley, much to the delight of his roaring crowd. Older songs such as Drink Drank Drunk went over just as well, but the laptop discreetly providing most of the backing music unfortunately decided to die midway through that particular song. The rest of the set was held together with an iPhone, which killed the vibe a little. It was great to see a drummer and bass player lending their own touch to the set though, and Drapht’s hype-man and backup rapper also dominated both parts of his job. Unfortunately the DJ decks quickly started to feel a little unnecessary, because the mix was so bass-heavy that it was pretty rare to actually hear any scratching.

In any case, this night was all about Drapht. The man himself was in top form, swaggering around the stage and effortlessly floating through his verses. The shout-out choruses of Jimmy Ricard and mega-hit Rapunzel were clear highlights of the nights, with Drapht getting pretty well everybody in the place off their feet and singing along at the top of their lungs. His crowd conversation and stage moves may have felt a little too rehearsed at times, but given the fairly limited number of stage moves rappers really have to pick from, he did quite well. A solid light show and a couple of well-utilised guest verses – including the re-appearance of Mantra – were also welcome additions to the set.

Topping off a solid set with the slightly anti-climatic new track RIP Jimm; Drapht seeming to fade out a bit towards the very end. Of course of the night though, he had delivered the fans exactly what they were looking for. If only the night could have ended with one last huge chorus to bounce around to.