Whomever your deity may be – whether it’s that hipster beardy fella in the sky, or Ten News’ weatherman Mike Larkin – all who attended Bliss N Eso’s aptly named Circus Under The Starstour leg at Flemington Racecourse owe them a debt of gratitude. A warm, clear night and a packed out gig brought a very welcome summer festival vibe back to Melbourne, and it ain’t a proper summer festival without a healthy dose of Aus hip hop!
Whether you dig hip hop or not, one thing that’s indisputable is that Bliss N Eso are an absolute force on the Aus music scene, regularly topping the charts and selling out shows here, there and everywhere – including the US – with their high energy, pumped up rhymes and beats. For this latest tour, they were ably supported by American singer/songwriter/rapper Ceekay Jones, Sydney duo Horrorshow, and local emcee Seth Sentry.
Horrorshow are coming off a pretty successful year themselves following the 2013 release of King Amongst Many, gaining a little more mainstream traction for the duo. Lyrics flow from Kid Solo almost effortlessly; it’s as if he’s conversing with the audience over a background of beats. In a short set they combined a nice mix of recent and older works, with The Rain and Jimblah collaboration Own Backyard clear crowd favourites. With not a cloud in the sky, it was perhaps pretty appropriate that they rounded off their set with recent hit Dead Star Shine.
Then it was time for local boy and crowd favourite Seth Sentry to hit the stage. It underscores the current popularity of the local scene that pretty much every song in his set turned into a crowd singalong. However the actual highlight was when Seth invited fellow Melburnian Mantra onstage for a freestyle session that showcased the lyrical chops of two of Australia’s finest MCs.
By the time BNE hit the stage at 8.30pm, the supports had done their job in getting the crowd well and truly pumped for the main act, and by the third track – Woodstock 2008 – the whole crowd was jumping and didn’t seem to show any signs of letting up. In reality, that’s pretty unsurprising. It’s been a decade now since the release of BNE’s debut album Flowers In the Pavement, and since then they’ve reeled out hit after hit, creating an impressive body of work.
In a near two-hour set on Friday, there was barely a track that the fans didn’t know, and a few hits even had to be omitted to get everyone home in time for their beauty sleep; a testament to the Sydney duo’s status as hip hop royalty in this country. Performing with a backing group that included a return to the stage for Ceekay Jones on guitar, Bliss, Eso and DJ Izm spent almost as much time engaging with the young crowd and whipping them into a frenzy as they did with spitting rhymes.
A mid-set interlude with DJ Izm working the decks was particularly notable, as he wove together a pretty sweet mash-up of Lorde’s Royals over the top of MIA’s Paper Planes, and got the crowd singing along to some remixed INXS. The exclamation mark on the set was finishing off with Sea Is Rising – the boys were almost drowned out by the audience’s take on it – and an encore performance of the Ceekay Jones collaboration My Life.
Over the years, BNE have developed an enviable reputation for their amped up live shows, and this sold-out all-ages gig was no exception. Interestingly enough, it almost felt like a bit of a family affair, with throngs of fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters all jumping around together to DJ Izm’s beats. Musical education in Melbourne: alive and well!
BY EBEN ROJTER
Loved: That lingering summer festival vibe.
Hated: Those lingering summer festival beer prices.
Drank: Up the atmosphere…and Carlton Dry.
