All of us at Rotting Corpse have been waiting nearly half our lives for this tour to happen, Some of A.T.C.Q's first ever shows in the southern hemisphere. There was allot of hype surrounding this, some people even saying it was the most important hip hop show in the history of Australia, and i would nearly have to agree. I was trying to not talk it up so i would not be let down (Wu-tang and Ghost face shows anyone?), i mean i know they are old, i know Phife the "funky Diabetic" has heath issues but secretly i had high hopes and expectations.
So i get to the show, drink plenty of beer in record time, forgo watching the warm-up acts (Horrorshow and Thundermentals, who are amazing in there own right but i've seen them enough times), contemplate buying some expensive merch and get into the show. Show starts and someone who will remain nameless roles the standard hip-hop show spliff, puff puff pass puff puff pass and then its passed onto a few friends who will also remain nameless, they take one puff each and then get the heart stopping tap on the shoulder.
Ah fuck its the five-0 and they have taken our spliff. More importantly they have kicked our mates out of the show and given them a cannabis warning after one song. Now yes i know your not meant to smoke in the Horden Pavilion but really the place reeked of weed and the way the police deal with this is to walk in the door and grab the first person they see smoking half a joint. This is a pretty big cop out, targeting a show like this, with a whole bunch of older hip-hop heads, who are not out to cause trouble.......on a fucking wednesday night. Where were the five-o a week earlier for Hot Chip / Lcd Soundsystem show where half the Horden would have been peaking on stingers. Its sad when one of the lower level drugs is targeted so heavily ( Like sniffer dogs at the Wu-tang show, at the first stolen records gala ball or any other big ticket hip-hop show). Damn you weed for smelling so much (and good). (Rant part one over)
Anyway so yeh after all this it's on with the show. Back to the show, i don't really know what too say. It had its moment, they played the songs i wanted to hear, Q-tip and Phife killed it. But the sound was off, way too much low end (theory, sorry). So yeh the bass was so damn loud you could hardly hear the dusty lush jazzy beats that are as much part of A.T.C.Q as their impeccable lyrical flow.
So in the end i've "seen" A.T.C.Q but it kinda feels empty, i kind of expected more. Two of my childhood hip-hop heros (Wu-Tang and A.T.C.Q) spoilt. Wu-Tang by them just not being very good anymore and tribe by production values. Especially with no planned encore. Big ups to Phife and Jarobe for coming back out after the house lights were already back on, But they came out too "freestyle" and Tip was too cool to come out, so it just added to the situation.
Still big ups has to go out to Niche, trentslingshot and peace music it was a solid gamble and it payed off with a sold out show. Maybe in a year or two i will look back and think. How damn cool it was that i even got the chance to see "A Tribe Called Quest" in the first place
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