Tonight
is my first gig of the year and it’s something
different than what I usually cover, tonight I’ve
got some hip-hop and dub step. I come into an
already bustling crowd, full of similar aged fans
(which makes a change to the gigs I normally cover)
to catch the end of Sarah Williams White Set,
she sounds good despite the poor sound quality,
and reminds me of Imogen Heap, melodic vocals
and bassy samples. The bustling room might be
to do with the tweet tonight’s main artist
put out earlier today, as he told fans to get
down early as he'd be signing merch at the merch
desk as he can’t hang around after the gig,
and to his credit he’s there in the lobbey
causing huge queues and excitement
as people wait to meet him, this should be done
more artists as I find allot of people miss the
great support bands as they’re just interested
in the main act, this way they can get down early
meet the main act and still check out some new
music.
ITCH, the former King Blues singer, takes to the
stage in darkness, and you only knew he was there
because he shouts "are we fucking ready to
do this Birmingham!" and jumps straight into
his first song Ricochet which is bass heavy and
dance sample filled, as he raps at 100 miles an
hour over the killer beats. The lights come up
and show him in a suit with a cap with one fellow
performer playing samples on his keyboard in a
really freaky crying baby mask that takes a few
looks to see if it’s a mask or not! This
shows that ITCH is versatile as he’s being
touring a few different circuits, he’s done
the punk and ska shows and now he’s onto
the hip hop, at the other shows he has a band
and live backing vocals whereas tonight it’s
all samples, which for me takes the shine away
from his performance as the quality is much the
same as the first act(which isn’t his fault)
but that typical band set up distances me from
his music, and even though he bursts into hopeless
romantic featuring Adam Lazaera of Taking Back
Sunday, the room isn't really taking to him. Don’t
get me wrong he’s a talented guy and his
songs sound great recorded it’s just not
coming across here. He continues his short set
with Poetry, Drugs, and Children of the Revolution.
He gets the crowd more on his side by singing
a song in the middle of them, but this crowd are
never going to be crazy mosh pit types it’s
a drink and bob you’re head show. It’s
a good effort, but I think he needs to stick to
the crazy full band style gigs.
Dan
Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip is the main act tonight
and again they come out to darkness, with Dan
almost tripping over a table filled with water
and wine as he makes his was over to the his keyboard/sampler
set up, where he stays for the rest of the gig.
The beats start, and the sound has clearly been
saved for the main act with the bass rumbling
through everyone’s bones as the dub step
style noises drop from the huge speakers. As the
music starts the lights do too, with a huge lighting
rig behind the stage erupting with color and movement
along to the rhythms, which looks great, but for
some reasons stops when Scroobious Pip walks out
rapping away, it darkens to just backing light
making him a silhouette,
which is mainly how the lighting stays, throughout
the show, darkness when pip sings and lights when
beats get played, to me this seems a waste as
you want to see how singing/rapping to you, why
go and then distance yourself from the stage?
But the crowd don’t seem bothered, as they
sing along to every word, its strange how a crowd
that’s been so quiet all night has woken
up for the main act, they’re jumping around
and singing along. Pip involves the crowd by talking
to them in-between songs he tells them “this
is for, the security doing a great job giving
out water, don't give them any more work to do
as they're lovely” and “this might
be the most we've played to all tour, and your
already rowdy, it normally takes a while for everyone
to crazy, but you’re doing us proud Birmingham”.
The set list includes, Stunner, The Beat That
My Hear Skipped, Sick Tonight, Look for the Woman
and Coauliflower in which they get Sarah Williams
White to join them on stage for some beautiful
backing harmonies. They then continue the set
by saying “we had a new album out recently,
with some slower songs that went down allot better
than we expected. So were gonna play a few of
them if that's ok, as normally we wouldn't live,
but here goes” as he takes his hat off and
pulls his hood up and the lights die to just dark
back lighting so again you can't see anyone on
stage. The rest of the set continues with fast
and slow songs, including Angles, Night bus Sleepers,
Gold
Teeth, Get Better, You Will See Me Thou Shalt
Always Kill, they also get Itch up at one point
to sing Stiff Upper Lip. They come back on stage
for an encore of A Letter From God To Man before
ending with Dan performing a cover of The Prodigy’s
Voodoo People as the crowd sings along.
Overall tonights been a weird one, it started
with a ITCH performance that could have been better
at a different gig, but with everything taken
into account it was a good set with allot of effort
and versatility, then Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius
Pip came and woke the crowd up showing why they’re
big enough to sell out a venue like this, but
at the same time I felt like I wasn’t getting
it half way through they’re set, which was
just me as the rest of the crowd loved it, I suppose
that’s what happens when you check out different
styles of music than you’re used to, you
might not get it, and I didn’t, I doubt
I’d check Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobious Pip out
again, but I’ll definitely see ITCH with
a band and keep an eye out for Sarah Williams
White.
ITCH 2.5/5
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobious Pip 3/5
Review By James Daly
Itch Photos By: Claire Whelpton
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip Photos By: James Daly
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