After a lengthy intro replete with beat matching mistakes by his DJ, Midas.Gold appears onstage. Things aren’t off to a great start. Following this, Gold’s hype man awkwardly dances and mouths lyrics without a mic in hand, while the rapper boasts about his bank balance. Clearly, rapping about having “six zeros” in his account doesn’t resonate when everyone’s in a pub that has a weekly parma special.
Thankfully after a pint and a half hour wait, Dex captures the local spirit that Ivan Ooze has capitalised on so well on. Even though he’s only two songs into his set, Dex’s exuberance and self-deprecation mean the crowd cheer rather than boo when he stops the track to explain he’s fucked up and it’s best we move on. Dex’s DJ moves swiftly through dreamy beats and heavy drops, while the main man runs around stage to connect with every face in the front row. Before premiering a new song, Dex warns us that he might forget the lyrics and freestyle instead. It’s a credit to his ability as a performer that he smashes through the song, and it’s only clear he swapped to freestyling when he tells us.
Absolute fucking madness hardly begins to describe the response to Ooze’s set. The main cluster in the middle of the room jump in unison, and people are grooving from side to side. Ooze spits rhymes at a rapid pace, his lyrcis blowing past the crowd like bullets. At one point there’s people on stage willing to do shoey’s, although two of them don’t even have a beer to drink, and Ooze is trying to break up a fight in the front row. The feuding pair split, the beers are drunk and we get right back to partying.
Requesting a wave “like Blastoise defeating Charizard”, the strobe is turned on and the floor rattles dangerously as everyone complies. Joints are lit and passed around, all while people clamber on top of each other for the chance to grab the mic from Ooze. A punter up front wearing a Captain America mask turns around and desperately asks, “What the fuck is going on?” The only explanation is that it’s the Ivan Ooze experience, and by the time Hooligans and Fire hit, the crowd are wholly exhausted. Safe to say, intimate settings won’t hold the Ivan Ooze pressure cooker for long.
Loved: Some guy saying he wouldn’t mind if Ooze banged his girlfriend.
Hated: Midas.Gold.
Drank: Draught pints.
