Laundry
June 8th 2008
I have been waiting for this show... I saw the Foreign Beggars twice in London and both times was blown away so my expectations were high... I bigged these dudes up to anyone who would listen and wondered whether they could possibly be as good as I remembered them... To start I will say they blew the lid of the Laundry, it was an insanely brilliant performance!!!
But I will start at the start... We rolled late, 11ish, as I was sober and hate standing around for a million support acts... Brendan is a star for putting this show on but I just don't think that any promoters over here realise that if you have one fantastic act you only need one or two maximum support acts... Now I arrived at 11 and still managed to see 2 of the supports and I must say that they pretty much sucked...
Cyclones looked and sounded amateur, no energy yet they kept demanding that the crowd 'get rowdy', well boys you lead, we will follow... They didn't lead and we were all just stood there waiting for something good to happen... I must say at least these boys could dress themselves which is more then I can say for most Aus' hip hop acts...
Mark563 played in between sets, churning out classic after classic, getting the girls dancing and the boys rhyming along... Fraksha was hosting, but seemed to struggle with keeping the crowd focused through the technical difficulties, I just need a little more banter from a host...
Next was Tall Man Sound System... People looked a little interested in this, but mostly they floundered... These dudes looked a mess, one of them had the most battered disgraceful adidas on, he should not have been allowed to leave the house with those on, let alone grace the stage before such an anticipated act...
And finally the Foreign Beggars... The energy alone was crazy, and it was give and take, these boys brought a massive show to a small stage... Everyone was going crazy, the boys performed well, even in light of technical difficulties they kept the crowd right in the palm of their hand... 'Hold On' was the highlight, I felt like I was on the most amazing drugs ever, yet I was stone cold sober, with pure adrenaline keeping me as high as every other person in the crowd... Ending with some drum and bass and the whole place was jumping... I have been going to that venue for almost ten years and I have NEVER seen it like that, a wonderful experience, that shows up every other show I have been to in Australia in the past year, or maybe 2...
11 comments:
woah.... thats harsh - leigh x
Hi Corrie,
Just read your blog and although I beleive everyone is entitled to an opinion, i also think that if you are publically reporting on live acts and commenting on their bad dress sense, then maybe you could also post the info that if more patrons paid for tickets rather than blag freebies or ask for guest lists.. Then maybe these smaller acts could afford to dress a bit fresher. Or maybe your knowledge and efforts could be timely invested into helping these smaller guys get sponsorship for kicks and other apparell?
Im generally not a blog reader,this is probably the first time iv read one and im a bit shocked at the harshness.
Please dont take personally, thats just my two cents.
;) Syl
I think you guys are missing the point of the review, but hey thats cool, I'm not offended, I stand by my opinion... No surprises there ;)
Syl, I must say that guestlist was limited for this gig, I paid for my ticket and my husband was playing... I think that if promoters didnt put on 6 support acts maybe they could afford to pay their acts a bit more OR these acts could just get a day job... hmmmm... this is a good point that you bring up, unfortunately australia is known for badly dressed emcees, which is a shame because hiphop is a culture and style is a part of that culture... If you go to some shows while you are in London you will see what I mean, even nobody acts dress well... I don't think that it's my responsibility to secure clothing and kicks sponsorship for people I dont know, thats a bit of a stretch...
At the time everyone was commenting on how they looked and I dont see a difference in reporting that on my blog to saying it at the show... I would prefer to be honest then gloss over the facts, even if it does spark a little controversy...
love and light...
Ahhhhhh since when does what a person wears have anything to do with the music or the scene even? Hip hop isn't about the shoes you rock, its about freedom of speech and being yourself... find it a bit stupid to hate on someone about what they wore on stage... and just for the record i rock 60+ pairs of nikes
Again I think that people are missing the point of the review, and that is that the Foreign Beggars killed it... But if you gonna press the issue... I also want to add, the first thing I lok at when I meet someone is their shoes, some people like a smile, eyes, whatever, I like shoes, so if someone in the public eye are wearing crappy kicks I am gonna say it, everyone has already seen it...
'Ahhhhhh since when does what a person wears have anything to do with the music or the scene even?'
Since always... When I met Grandmaster Caz he said something that rings true to me hip hop is like a table, you have your four elements which are the legs to keep the table up, but there is a fifth element which is style, thats the table cloth... I agree about hip hop being about self expression, to me what you wear on stage is an expression of yourself, your individualism and also your professionalism... If you rock on stage wearing dirty old kicks, Ima think that you dont care about your audience enough to put some thought into how you are presented to them, how hard is it to clean your kicks before a show?
love and light...
'how hard is it to clean your kicks before a show?'
... Or even yourself...
The majority of Australian Hip Hop acts I've encountered since being in the country tend to look like tramps... And judging by the smell in these venues since the smoking laws came in to effect, many of them seem to avoid showering too...
I think, within Hip Hop, style is important, and as a punter I have expectations of performers and that includes appearance as much as performance...
I don't see that as being harsh...
One...
Mark 563...
http://runtheline.blogspot.com/
A few comments from the promoter...
support acts were chosen based on their music, their ethos and attitude. I tried to pick a bunch of crew who would appreciate the opportunity and would compliment the headliner.
all of these artists played for a small fee, knowing full well that we had to pull a good numbers to break even. i purposely kept the ticket price down to make the show more affordable. i did this to expose the headliners to more people and simply because I know many people are tight with money and may not have come otherwise.
I had hoped to put CMW(Custom Mantra Wasabi) on as main support (nominated best live act in 08) but it coudln't happen for various reasons.
to be honest, i think no one cared about the supports anyhow. i cant think of any other acts that i could have afforded to put on the show without taking a considerable risk. given the choices available to me i think I chose fairly well... I am sure that's debatable... but you have to remember that there was an Obese Block Party on Friday and a Mix Master MIke/PBW show on Sat... the FB show was on the northside and I'd be stupid to not put 'northside' kinda supports on... most of the supports are regulars at Laundry who help make up the scene on that side of town.
you also have to remember that we offered TWO LEVELS of entertainment for the night with TWO international headline acts.
the comment about guestlist, etc rings true as I am constantly expected to add people to guestlists despite very little contribution to the shows, the scene, etc. of course those who do contribute are rewarded accordingly.
this show was not supposed to go down at The Laundry but did out of necessity. I don't have time to go into the whole story, but as stated, we had to keep the guest list to a bare minimum to ensure the show would not lose money. as it was we didn't quite hit the mark but we had such a good show that I don't care too much about not being paid for my efforts. i put in months of work to make this happen and saw very little financial reward from the tour. shit happens, and i made three very good new friends through the process of booking this tour... FB were a pleasure to work with and I hope to bring them back again in Summer.
i can appreciate that corrie likes to go see performers who present themselves well, dress up in a stylish manner, etc but i can assure you that groups like Mata & Must aren't about the glamorous side of hip-hop, rather being more focused on making good music without gimmicks, nor the need for a glossy image.
not sure who had the clapped out adidas but all of Tall Man Sound System work in some way or form. I don't think it's very fair to judge anyone based on their appearance... although I do agree that presentation and image is important to live performance. yet that said, if Mata & Must came out on stage rocking brand-new outfits I'd instantly think something strange was going on..
I'd love to own more than two pairs of shoes (yes I am LUCKY ENOUGH to own two decent pairs of Nike SBs) and I'd also love some great new clothes to wear too. BUT UNTIL PEOPLE START SUPPORTING THE SCENE WITH CASH THEN I WILL CONTINUE TO PUT ON SHOWS THAT BARELY COVER COSTS. This also means that everyone down the chain gets paid less.. I can't afford many luxuries at this point in time and after this tour I am still wearing most of the same clothes I wore last season and can't see myself affording the new jacket/coat I'd like for winter unless something miraculous happens.
anyone in the music industry knows that one can't expect to make millions off working with underground artists. I certainly dont have any delusions about getting rich off hip-hop in Australia, as much as I wish I could see that there's a potential to live comfortably as a reward for my hard work. (which is more than fair enough in my opinion).
The artists, managers and promoters are suffering for the art. Everyone wants to be on the guestlist and download the music for free. We'll all be wearing crappy sneakers until this changes. It's people that work full-time jobs who should be supporting the artists and promoters who bring them entertainment every weekend. most people seem too concerned with how much drinking money they have and what sneakers they are gonna buy next. not feeding the artists they are happy to take from...
DISCLAIMER: there's plenty of generalisations here so please dont cut me down for responding to this blog.. just offering my 2¢ and i can see both sides of the argument clearly... no dis to corrie, just throwing some comments in the basket...
Thanks to everyone who came along and paid their hard earnt money to enjoy the Beggars put on an amazing live show, especially the support acts and DJs. May you all enjoy sponsorship or platinum record sales in the future! PEACE!
PS: Maybe Obese should be sharing some more of their free Adidas kicks around the scene a bit more??? Obviously there's people out there who really need em. :) LOL
the simple fact is that some people aren't fortunate enough to enjoy the luxuries many of us take for granted. i don't think many of us got into hip-hop for the glamour of the scene, but rather the message of the music and the bangin beats.
in australia, hip-hop is there for everyone... some less fortunate people use hip-hop to empower and to express themselves, to have something to believe in an a family belong to. how sad would it be if you had to have the freshest kicks, clothes, etc just to feel accepted?
it's attitudes like that the remind me of high-school and why some people i once knew(and were friends with) who ended up killing themselves because they simply didn't fit in and weren't 'cool'.
I blame Obese. GIVE UP THOSE KICKS PEGZ!! I know yr sitting on at least a dozen pairs!!! LOL
I agree that its not about glamour, I dont expect every act to rock out in a shiny new suit, for example Ivens has a dope sense of style and he is never shiny... Style has nothing to do with money... Like I said, how hard is it to clean your kicks, and have a shower? I work with homeless people and 80% of them still manage to look and smell cleaner then some of the dudes I see on stage...
As for a pretentious view, if you wanna read more of my blog a large amount of it is about kicks, I dont drink, do drugs or smoke cigarettes anymore so I have more money these days to spend on kicks, music, books, films, meals and clothes... I dont care whether you have a pair of shoes or 500, as long as what you are wearing you are wearing well...
If you knew me you would know that I am quite tongue in cheek and sarcastic, and while I mean that the geezer should have cleaned his kicks before he left the house, its not like I am losing sleep over it, and Im sure that the disgraced adidas wearer isnt either... And ultimately that was only one sentence of several positive paragraphs, time to move on I think... It was a cracking night, thanks Brendan :)
love and light...
no worries corrie! my pleasure (honestly)... FB are great people who I hope to spend more time with. Fingers crossed for summer!!!
PS: I always thought that Ivens and Nick Sweepah did a good job with presentation... those big horror movie t-shirts rarely disappoint! Good to see mark rocking the ZOMBIE tee. I saw Ivens giving that one a nod of approval when Mark busted it out.
PPS: Also feeling your comment on not drinking, etc... Some people just need to get their priorities right. It's great to spoil yourself from time to time if you aren't blowing all your cash on booze, weed, pingerz and going out heaps...
um... ah....? huh?
aha aha aha aha a ha i love it.
Baddums said it well. GRIMEY!
LICK MY KICKS!!!
M U S T
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