I have a problem with a lot of Hip-Hop gigs, not because I don't like the genre, I do. But - especially at smaller gigs - you find the sound systems generally aren't sophisticated enough to capture the fine detail. Unfortunately that was the case here.
AKIRA THE DON is ace, no doubt about it. I really hope he does well, because he is angry, he has a lot of messages to put across, he's articulate and intelligent, and he has the perfect medium to convey all this to the masses. Yippee. Is he going to be the 'Billy Bragg of Hip Hop?' Maybe.
And, God Bless him he is one of those lovely artists who stand at the front during gigs, making a point of supporting the support acts. There he was, looking like a cartoon character complete with long bleached blonde hair, waxed beard and moustache, white vest, and bright red baggy jeans. Tres cute.
The thing was, the support acts were boring beyond belief. It was a case of giving someone a microphone and them automatically thinking that they're stand-up comediens. It got really cliquey with the AKD-Bandwagon-Massive pratting about on stage, and I ended up feeling a bit alienated. I'm sure I wasn't the only one either.
At some point, Akira the Don sort of evaporated onto the stage out of nowhere, wearing an orange Guantanamo Bay boiler suit. Was he sound checking? Or was he performing? I don't know! But then his live band came on two-by-two and the show got on the road. Nice touch, but a bit haphazard.
"Now we're going to sing you a song about Modern Imperialism," he pronounced, once the band was all on stage, "Hopefully it'll be number 1 by July 2006." Given that it opened with a sample from Kirsty McColl's 'Thank You For the Days" I hope so as well.
Song over, he yelled to the crowd: " I knew you'd love me! All you need is an orange boiler suit and a song about AIDS."Was it? Really? I'd never have guessed - because all the vocals got completely lost in the mix. He'd picked up on this, I'm guessing, as he proclaimed "We have a dispute over the sound system. Easily resolved. personally, after years of sonic abuse I am now half deaf."
Ok, you're deaf, and the sound system is still crap. I was frustrated, I really wanted to hear his lyrics. His performance was charismatic, he was bouncy, entertaining, and his dialogue between the songs was really funny (unlike the support acts), but what of the lyrics?
"More tits would be funny," Oh here we go. "More erections would be confusing," Ahem. "Now we're going to sing a song about abortions." Eh? Confused, nervous laughter ensued. "Don't laugh about abortions, it's not funny," he chided. Erm, well, don't preclude serious statements with the word "Erection" then?
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Time and time again, he needed to explain the subject matter before and after the songs, because no-one could hear a damn word. Saying that, he draped himself over his monitor while he sang the sad/serious ones, and the happy tunes, I'm assuming, were the ones when he jumped up and down trying to touch the ceiling.
His band were good, although I failed to see the point of the female backing vocalist who didn't do much except show her legs and continually try to upstage Akira the Don. Actually that was fairly amusing.
Even more amusing was at one point during a song (don't ask me which one, or what he was going on about.), he decided to undo the top half of his boiler suit, but it all fell down, exposing his bona fide scruddy off-white Y-fronts. I can't remember what the tune was like, but it was definitely one of those rare precious moments in pop: Akira the Don with his arse hanging out of a bright orange boiler suit.
Japery aside, however, there was far too much pissing about between the songs. "You don't smoke, you like lollipops!" he shouted at someone, for some reason. A couple of random conversations later and the music started again.
"This is where it's really pumping in a generic fashion," he yelled. "There was this time when I supported Goldie Lookin Chain and I said 'This is the last song', and they all cheered! You've never heard anything like it." This didn't surprise me. And I'm a fan, really I am.
They finished with his single, 'Clones', which is a marvellous track, and is getting radio airplay all over the shop. But sadly on the whole, I felt that this performance was fragmented, self-indulgent, and even a bit on the unprofessional side. I really like his music, but I felt that the live side was lacking somewhat.
I really hope he sorts it out so that us, the viewers, may get the full experience, rather than having to rely on body language and vague explanations to figure out what's going on.
(Clones is released on One Little Indian records, and is currently available on iTunes.)
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