Friday Night Hip Hop

I went out with Rachel on Friday, it was a good night despite only having two glasses of wine.

bLuejuice with Richard on your Mind
29th June 2007
Spectrum, Oxford Street

When three bespectacled boys and a tall drummer took to the stage and was surrounded by bird song, I was lulled into a false sense of security for how the rest of the evening would go. I wasn’t wrong about Martin on Your Mind. They played a set of seemingly Neil Young crossed with eletro-pop inspired folk songs that included ‘Trombonne’ and ‘Shame about the Brain’ to a crowd that liked what they saw. Drummer, Elston had a look on his face that at time gave off the impression that he was either concentrating on the beat really hard or he was thinking, I’m a good drummer, get me outta here. The small but effective pyrotechnics display, showering the audience in blue and pink glitter was a pleaser. It was a pity really; that the clarity of the words they were singing was lost by the reverb coming from the speakers. But if the music was anything to go by, then the words were good as well.

After a short break the back wall of the stage lit up with a video of the main attraction for the night. bLuejuice had filmed themselves performing ‘Vitriol’ in Pitt Street Mall recently and the reaction of the passing shoppers was not the same as the audience in the Spectrum, there the looks of confusion and distain rained. Here they clearly love the band that dresses in white robes and rolled around the street. Here when they appeared wearing white robes and walked through the crowd a huge cheer greeted them and hands stretched out to touch. They started with ‘The Truth Is’ a Sid Vicious type song with a hip hop background. Not at all what I was expecting after the folksy support band. Not the ideal match, but I went with it and got more and more into the band that had two lead singers (Jake and Stav) with springs in their shoes and way too much Red Bull in their blood stream. The Bass player (Jamie), had a touch of Slash about him, with hair down to his nose I was surprised he could read the extremely organised set list at his feet (full instructions on the set including which bass to use for which song). The drummer (Ned) was so relaxed he played in his socks.

Stav took off their smocks and reveal a bare chest and pink fishnet t-shirt to sing ‘Vitriol’ on stage and the crowd gathered an energy that had been smouldering. The guy with dreadlocks saw this as his chance to jump on stage and put his white slouch hat on keyboard player (Jerry). The Ian Dury inspired hip hop continued with ‘Phantom Boogie’ and ‘All Out’ until a shot break was called. ‘Motorbike Accident’ and ‘Mad Bounce’ followed, which surprisingly saw (Stav) lying on the floor rather than jumping up and down like a mad thing. Again a talented band was spoiled slightly by less than ideal sound mixing of the house, but sixty minutes after walking out they closed the set with ‘The Reductionist’ to huge applause and a new fan waiting in the corner nursing a glass of wine. Note to self, wine is not the ideal for bLuejuice, jagerbombs may be better.