Foreign Beggars - Laundry - June 8th 2008

Foreign Beggars
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...

Obese Block Party 5

Obese Block Party 5
PALACE THEATRE
(formerly Metro Melbourne)
20 - 30 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000

We arrived at 9pm to a queue... On a chilly night I could think of many better things to be doing than queueing getting passively stoned with about 50 boys... We eventually got to the door, searched (unexpected) and then in, surprisingly it was empty, not sure why the queue was so slow, but you get that... From the first few minutes it was clear that the small crowd was already full of losers, which got progressively worse with the night... Illy never rolled onto stage, not sure what that was about? Ivens was good, hadn't seen him for aaaaages and I must say his stage presence is on the up... Reasons set was tight, but I just don't get why he changes all the beats to tracks we already know and love... Its frustrating... Wasn't really feeling spit syndicate or chasm, and the crowd was really annoying me by this stage...

Went backstage to see Mark, and I'm not hot on the way its laid out since the renovations... Was waaaay too smoky in the back and too crowded on the side of the stage so I went back to my girls in the crowd... Drapht was really good, am seriously considering purchasing his album with hope that its as good as his live show... Bias was good, but this is to be expected, and then we legged it... Just couldn't deal with that many boys with busy hands, was either leave or end up punching someone... Great tunes provided in the interim by Mark563, its a nice change to have an Obese show pay attention to this... Big up Ben at Obese for my AAA pass, its nice to have easy access to my husband...

credit to mark563 www.runtheline.blogspot.com for some of my pics